DOA

DOA

Part 1

As they drive to the show at The Spot, the members of Red Knife wish that they could be playing it. Unfortunately, John, the drummer, had quit the band to go to college two weeks prior. The remaining members, Rick, Sandra, and Harrison wouldn't be going off to college anytime soon and they know that they would have been on the billing for this gig if John hadn't left the band. They couldn't blame him, however, and it wasn’t as if John had left the band on bad terms. This had been expected from day one.

Rick pulls into the parking lot and they all climb out somberly. They know that this show is going to be average, and that it will lack the energy and excitement that Red Knife always brings. As they pay and walk in, Rick begins to notice how few people were in this room. "Only squares show up early." he thinks to himself. But as he looks at his watch, he notices it is 9:20. The show had started over an hour ago.

Sandra, with her long, flowing, brown hair resting on her shoulders, watched while Nonetheless played, obviously trying their hardest to bring in a decent crowd. As they pounded through their most well known song 'In a Fraction of a Second', Sandra looked around, and guessed that, maybe two dozen people showed, at most.

The members of Red Knife hung around until 10:00, but no one was coming. Nonetheless had already finished their set, and Frozen With Fear was halfway through their set. Harrison, or Harry as he had been called since elementary school, had always thought that Frozen With Fear was one of the better bands in the area, but they weren't bringing in much of a crowd tonight. They continued to watch Frozen With Fear raged and attempted to bring excitement to the show. Their lead singer was swaying around, holding onto the microphone stand for some support, and everyone there could tell that he was beyond drunk. At about 10:15, Harry suggested that they all go to get a beer, since this was a small show. There wasn't any alcohol being served at the venue and it got boring real fast.

As they pulled out of the parking lot, the sounds of screaming metal coming from inside the building, came to a sudden stop. They could tell that Frozen With Fear was stopping midway through their set. They saw Will walk out to his van and drive away, with their drummer, Robby, running behind, shouting out insults at him.

"Fucking prick! Yeah, that's right. Go home, screw us over! Fucking asshole!" Robby continued shouting until he was out of range.

Rick pulled out close to where Robby had sat down on the curb, and started smoking a cigarette. "Hey Robby, you guys need a ride home?" Harry called out from the passenger seat of the gray van.

"Yeah, dude. That would be fucking great. Mind if we cram our shit into your van?" Robby replied, flicking the cigarette he had been smoking, down to the ground, and stomping it out.

Rick told Robby to go ahead, and he backed into the loading area, as Robby went in to help get the gear.

After they had packed all of their gear in, Robby and the rest of Frozen With Fear climbed in, and sat down on the floor near their gear. By the time Rick dropped everyone off at their places, it was close to 1:00 in the morning. Rick slowly drove through the city of Ashland, Wisconsin. He saw flashing lights in his rear-view mirror, and pulled over, preparing for an officer to come up to his car. An ambulance shot past him. He followed, from a distance, not to see what was going on, but to get to his house. The ambulance pulled into a parking lot, where a van had crashed into the wall of restaurant. Rick watched as they used the jaws of life to get the person out of the van. He recognized that van with its silver and blue flames. It was Will's van. he watched as they dragged him out of the car. They weren't being all that careful. He heard someone pronounce him DOA.

Rick woke up that Saturday, to his seven-year-old sister, Janice, handing him the phone. He sat up in bed and listened, as his sister closed the door on her way out. He heard a familiar voice over the phone. It was Robby.

"Hey dude, there any chance you seen Will since last night? He hasn't shown up to practice yet, and his cell phone is turned off. So we're calling up random people that might know where he is." Rick didn't know how to tell him what he had seen last night. Sure, Will was a prick, but he didn't deserve to die.

"Maybe, you should call the local police station," Rick suggested, "He seemed pretty blitzed last night when he as leaving."

Rick hung up and went to the fridge. He opened it up and grabbed a carton of milk. After drinking from it and wiping off his face, he put it back. He slammed the fridge door shut, and headed towards his room. He picked up his black B.C. Rich Virgin. He plugged it in, along with his effects, and started to play. He played through two Red Knife songs, and thought about how they didn't have a drummer. After a little while, he turned off the amp and put down his guitar. Rick picked up the phone. He dialed a number and heard a familiar voice pick up on the other end.

"Hey Sandra. Can you get over here? I think we should figure out the whole drummer situation."

"Sure, I don't mind having a practice today." Sandra replied.

"It's not a practice if we don't have a drummer, can you just come over?"

She agreed and hung up. Rick started punching the numbers to Harry's phone. Over the phone he heard the machine pick up and he hung the phone up. He went to his room and tried to find the piece of paper that he had wrote Harry's cell phone number on. Harry hadn't had his cell phone very long and Rick hadn't to call it yet, so he didn't have a clue what it was. He eventually picked out of his pants pocket. He had forgotten it was in there. He furiously dialed it out. He heard Harry pick up.

"Yo. What's up Rick?" Harry said as he answered.

"Can you get over here? We need to talk about our drummer problem, I already called Sandra."

"Sure. I can swing by." Harry said as he hung up.

Rick sat down and thought for a while before they arrived.

Part 2

Rick was eighteen, a senior in high school, and he knew that he wasn’t going anywhere after he graduated. Rick had slugged his way through all four years of high school, and been threatened with expulsion three different times. Most people were amazed that he was actually going to graduate. Rick wasn’t dumb or anything, he simply lacked the motivation for almost anything but playing guitar.

As he sat on his bed, waiting for the other two members of his band arrive, Rick actually took a while to think of what he would do after he graduated. His dad was going to make him pay rent to stay at his small bedroom in the basement if he wasn’t going to school or working a full-time job. His mom had ran out on them four years ago for a rich bastard who lived in L.A.

Rick picked himself up off of his bed, and went outside after hearing the familiar sounds of Harry’s ‘76 Chevrolet parking in his driveway. The glimmer off of it showed that it was a perfect spring day in May.

He called out to Harry, who had picked up Sandra on his way over. “Hey guys, I was thinking we could head over to the pizza place on Lakeshore Drive. That alright with you?”

“Sure. Why not?” Harry and Sandra answered back as Rick climbed into the backseat with Sandra.

Sandra was also a senior in high school. She was a stunning young woman, long tan legs, revealed only by the cutoff jeans she usually wore. Her tight white tank top was covered slightly by an open sweatshirt. Rick buckled up and put his arm around her, and she responded by resting her head on his shoulder. Sandra and Rick had been dating steadily since she joined the band. She played rhythm guitar and was usually in front of the microphone screaming her lungs out.

“Getting cozy in the backseat of my car, lovebirds?” Harry called back laughing.

“Oh, shut it, Harry.” Sandra responded.

Harry was a junior in high school. He had somewhat long blond hair that hung down in front of his eyes, and wore tight jeans. He played bass in Red Knife, and, not to mention, he was straight edge. He always watched as the rest of them sat in the bar drinking. They all had fake ID’s and all looked somewhat older than they were. He would occasionally suggest that they get drinks, but he would never drink.

Harry pulled into the parking lot of Pizza Pub, and they all climbed out of the car. They walked in and sat down at the booth in the far corner. Rick sat down and Sandra slid in and Rick put his arm around her. Harry sat on the other side. The waitress came by, and Rick and Sandra ordered beers and showed the waitress their ‘fake’ ID’s. Harry went with a can of Sprite. The waitress left and Rick got right down to business.

“So what the fuck do we do now? Do we get a new drummer, or is this the end of Red Knife?” Rick asked.

“Well, who the fuck else are we gonna get for a drummer?” Sandra asked.

The waitress came back with their drinks and they continued to talk as she left.

“What about Robby from Frozen With Fear? They seem to be on the verge of breaking up anyways.” Harry suggested as the waitress came back to take their orders.

They ordered and then Sandra started to talk. “Well, hasn’t this happened with them before though? This isn’t the first show that Will has walked out on the rest of them. Remember the show we played with them in March? People started to leave while the first band was on stage, mostly around the time that they were playing ‘Three Chords and the Truth’. Frozen With Fear was the third out of four bands to play, and by the time they got on stage, only a couple dozen people were there. Sure, they came back to watch us, but no one had really been watching them.”

“No one can come back from the dead.” Rick stated powerfully as Harry and Sandra looked at him, expecting him to explain.

“After I dropped you guys and everyone else off last night, I was going by some restaurant, and I saw his van plowed through the wall. I rolled down my window to ask what happened, but I didn’t need to. The three letters I heard one of the EMT’s say explained it all. DOA. I knew that he was pretty blitzed when he left, so I expected to hear something about him ending up in a ditch, passed out. I wasn’t expecting to see his dead body carried out, almost without respect.”

Harry and Sandra just listened with dropped jaws. They weren’t able to believe what Rick was telling them. Sandra tried to get Rick to say he was joking, but she knew him well enough to know when he was dead serious.

They ate, paid, and headed out not saying a single word as they got in the car.

Part 3

It was Sunday and Rick was just hanging around at home with his younger brother, Billy, who was a sophomore in high school. They were sitting in the living room watching something on TV. A commercial came on, and Billy looked over to Rick and started to talk.

“Hey Rick, when’s your band playing another show? I have seen you guys play in a while.”

“Well, John isn’t playing with us anymore, so I don’t know when we’ll have another gig.”

“Oh.” Billy replied, “Can’t you get someone to fill in on drums?”

“Yeah, but it wouldn’t sound right. Drums are a big part of our band, and John was a great drummer, and had everything down perfect. I don’t know anyone that can play drums as good as him.”

“Oh.” Billy replied as the TV came back on. Billy had a small build, black hair that was usually spiked up, but he was very prudent in most things. So Billy decided that he would let it go for now. It would never really occur to Rick that Billy could play drums and had been looking for a band to play with for the past six months.

The two brothers finished watching the movie and they each went off to their respective rooms. The walls in the Johnson household were thin, but nonetheless Rick fired up his amp and picked up his favorite guitar. Billy picked up his drumsticks, and started pounding out a version of ‘Saints of Los Angeles’ that he had been working on learning for a possible cover song.

Rick heard this through the wall, and started to play along. While it was only drums and a guitar, it sounded pretty decent. They got to the chorus before the solo, and Rick started to sing, “We are, we are the saints. We signed our life away...” Rick wasn’t the best singer and trailed off halfway through the chorus.

After they finished, Rick went over to his brother’s room. He knocked on the door, and then entered. “That was some pretty awesome drumming there, little bro! We should jam more often, huh?”

“Yeah, sure.” Billy replied as he adjusted his setup. He had collected many pieces of equipment over the last four years that he had been playing. He had two bass drums, an assortment of Zildjian cymbals, and a mess of different toms.

“You wouldn’t happen to know any of the drum patterns to our songs, would you?” Rick asked.

“Yeah, I think I know some of your earlier songs, off of your first EP, like ‘Twist the Knife’ and ‘Wanderlust’. Why?” Billy replied unenthusiastically.

“Well I was just wondering if you could help me practice.” Rick answered casually. “Think you could help me out?”

“Sure. Why not?” Billy replied as he started to pound out the intense drum intro to ‘Twist the Knife’. Rick came in with the just-as-intense verse, and they played through it. Rick, however, couldn’t play lead and sing at the same time, so he just played.

After they finished, Rick turned to Billy. “So, Billy, any chance that you might play for us? I mean, you’d have to try out with the rest of Red Knife, but I think you’d make an excellent drummer. You already know some of our songs, so that’s a bonus. You could try out with ‘Twist the Knife’.”

“Sure, I can fill in for you guys, I’d have to listen to your EP’s a few times and get the beats down, but yeah, I can fill in.”

“Maybe, you don’t understand, Billy, I want YOU to replace John,” Rick replied.

Rick left the room, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the ecstatic expression on his brother’s face.

Part 4

It was Wednesday night, which since Red Knife formed, had been their practice night. They were back on track with Billy on drums. Sandra and Harry almost instantly wanted him in the band when they heard him play the drum intro to ‘Twist The Knife’. They blasted into it, tighter than before. It sounded like Red Knife had nearly been reborn, with an amazing drum part and heavy bass line backing the guitars. Sandra stepped up to the microphone and screamed out the lyrics to the first verse: “See what becomes of me, as I force you to bleed. Stab into your heart and twist the knife.” By the time they got to the solo the members of Red Knife felt like they were on a stage underneath the hot spotlights, playing for a huge crowd.

They blasted through the rest of their songs. Red Knife had recorded and put out two EP’s on their own, each containing seven songs. At the end of the fourteen songs, Sandra started to talk. “I think we should work on writing some new songs. It makes sense, what with the lineup change and all.” The others quickly agreed. They began working on a new song, which they aptly named ‘Era of Blood’ after Sandra had started to sing in a low creepy voice “I walk through the city, but find nothing but blood. This marks a new era, an era of blood.”

They finished practice and Billy and Rick went in from their garage, as Harry and Sandra headed home. The phone rang, and Rick picked it up. It was Robby on the other end. “Hey dude, Red Knife find a drummer yet? ”

“Yeah, Robby, what about it? ”

“Well, we got a new singer, and we’re looking to play a gig this Saturday at the Civic Center in Washburn, we got a few bands, and Nonetheless says that they’ll only do it if you guys do.”

“Why’s it matter to them if we play or not? ”

“I don’t know dude, but if we can get enough bands to play we can probably get a big f--king crowd.”

“Alright, Robby, I’ll talk to everyone, but if we do, we want the headlining spot.”

“Okay, man, catch ya later, dude.”

“Hey Billy, where you at? ” Rick called through the house.

“I’m just moving my drumset out from the garage.” Billy called back. Rick walked into the garage and told Billy about the gig. It had been two months since they Red Knife had played a gig, and Sandra and Harry were psyched for it when Rick told them.

***

It was Saturday, and Sandra and Harry were over for a last minute practice. “All right guys, I think we should work on the new song we started to write last practice.” Rick said. The others agreed, and they went to work on it.

Around 6:30 p.m. The members of Red Knife started to put their gear in the back of Rick’s van. The show was scheduled to start at 7:00, with some band from out of state opening. Then it was some local pop-punk band, Nonetheless, and then Frozen With Fear. They were scheduled to go on at 11:00, but they wanted to show up early to check out some of the other bands and work on set lists.

They arrived around 7:30. The Rabies, which was a half-assed punk band from Minnesota, were halfway through their set when they got there. They were the openers, and most of the people there could tell why. The members of Red Knife sat in the van until their set was over and then went in. They started to unload their gear halfway through the second band’s set. They figured that there was no rush to get their stuff in.

The members of Red Knife finished unloading, and went to sit at a table in the back corner of the place. Sandra was the first to speak. “So what about the set list guys? ”

“I think we should do the new song as the closer.” Harry responded enthusiastically.

“Yeah, I agree with that.” Rick said. Billy, however, sat there silently, feeling almost completely ignored, his eyes darting to look at whoever was speaking. Rick, Sandra, and Harry finished the set lists without any real input from Billy and then headed off to talk to people they knew. They had decided to open up with one of their most known songs, Wanderlust. Billy simply sat at the table alone, watching whatever band was on stage.

***

Billy watched curiously as Nonetheless climbed up on to the stage with their gear. Rick had told him that they would only play if Red Knife played. This shot a feeling of curiosity and worry through him in the form of a cold shiver down the spine. Nonetheless had only been playing for a couple of months. No one really knew who they were. So who were they to make demands?

Billy looked around nervously. The bloody letters at the top of the flyers that spelt out ‘Red Knife’ had brought in many people. He continued to look around. After a while he saw Rick and Sandra talking to a group of people, completely ignoring the show and the band playing on the stage. He saw Harry in the mosh pit, holding his own extremely well.

He continued to watch the show carefully, until someone sat down at the table. “You’re in Red Knife, right? ” The person said, almost sure of the answer he was about to receive.

“Yeah, I guess.” Billy replied, almost apathetically, as he continued to watched the show. Nonetheless finished the song and Billy turned to continue talking. “I’m Billy, the new drummer. Who are you? ”

“My name’s Liam, I’m the new singer for Frozen With Fear.” This sparked a bit of interest for Billy.

“So, where are you from then? ‘Cause I haven’t seen you around here before.” Billy asked.

“I moved here from Minneapolis a couple weeks ago. I heard that Frozen With Fear was looking for a new singer and figured I’d try out.”

“Why would you want to come up here from Minneapolis? Most people around here end up moving to there, not the other way around.”

“Well, my uncle used to live up here and offered to sell me his house when he heard I was moving. But I moved from Minneapolis because I didn’t like the scene down there. Hard to start a band cause everyone else is already in one, and harder to join a band because they all just break up if they lose someone. I just got frustrated with it. So I moved up here.”

“Oh.” Billy replied. He had a strange feeling that there was more to Liam than what he was telling him.

“Well, I got to get ready to go up on stage, ” Liam stated as he left. Nonetheless were clearing their gear off of the stage and Frozen With Fear started to bring theirs on.

They played through their set and Red Knife easily won over the house. They had acquired a big following around the area and had playing gigs since Rick’s freshman year, originally as a three-piece. Harry joined the year after. Soon after the addition of Harry, they recorded their first EP, Twist The Knife. They gigged and built up their reputation for the next year or so. Then during the summer before this year they recorded their second EP, Replacing History With Fiction.

They finished their set and received compliments on their new song. They started to pack their stuff into Rick’s van. Billy got his drums into it, and went back into the building to help out with the rest of the gear. When he got inside, Liam was waiting to talk to him.

Part 5

“Hey Billy. Good job up there tonight. That your first time playing on stage?” Liam casually asks while leaning against the wall. Liam is a slim, about 5'6" 19 year old that has black hair that hangs down to his chin. Despite having an average teen appearance, he’s really peculiar.

“Yeah,” Billy says, even though he can tell that Liam is getting at something else and doesn’t really care what his answer is.

“Didn’t really look like you were having too much fun up there.” Liam replies casually.

“I guess not,” Billy answers, “I don’t really like Red Knife that much, I guess. I mean, Rick can play guitar extremely well, but, well, I had to listen to their EP’s over and over again to get the drum beats down.”

“So what’s the problem then?”

“Well, I noticed that while they have decent songs, and can put on great shows, they’re kind of musically inept. Their musically is all over the place, and they don’t seem to put in any effort to stay in key. Also, the drums kind of boring. They have pretty good drum patterns, but they’ don’t even use half of the drums on the set.”

“Huh. So what’s stopping you from changing the drum parts?”

“Well, it’s not really my music, you know. It’s kind of like I’m trying to play a cover. That, and they all kind of ignore me, like I’m not really part of the band, almost like a stand-in.

“Well, I’m trying to put together a band, would you be up for it?”

“I don’t know, I’d have to think about it. And aren’t you singing for Frozen With Fear?”

“Yeah, in a way. I’m really just a stand-in. They want to go out with a bang before they break up. They’re playing their last show next Saturday. Headlining, I guess. They have something special planned, but they haven’t told me yet.” Liam says as a girl walks over to them.

“There you are Liam, you ready to go?”

“Yeah, just about. Rita, this is Billy. Billy, this is my cousin, Rita.” Liam says, introducing the young drummer to a pretty girl with jet black hair wearing a leather jacket with a misfits shirt underneath, and a pair of torn jeans.

“So how do you two know each other?” Rita asks, trying to make small talk.

“Well I just met Liam but I’m gonna be playing drums for him. When’s practice?” Billy says foolishly, stunned by Rita’s beauty, hoping that he might see more of her by hanging out with Liam.

“I got a couple other guys that are ready for a practice tomorrow, one o’clock work for you? I can give you a ride. You’ll have to bring your own drums though.” Liam says as they all head out.

“Hey! We’ve been waiting for you for a while now. What took you so long?” Rick says as

Billy climbs into the van and sits down next to Harry in the backseat.

“Hey guys. Sorry, I got caught up a bit. I was talking to the new singer for Frozen With Fear, nothing special.” Billy replies casually. He considers telling them about Liam asking him to be in a band, but he realizes that Rick might not take it very well.

For the rest of the ride home, Rick, Sandra, and Harry talk amongst themselves, Billy doesn’t say more than a few words the entire time. After dropping Harry and Sandra off at their houses, Rick heads home and he and Billy unload their gear and go to sleep.

It’s Sunday, 11 o’clock and Billy is just waking up. Rick has left to hang out with Sandra already. Billy gets up and sits down at the kitchen table with a bowl of cereal. He finishes eating and goes to play his drums for a little bit before Liam comes. He finishes playing and packs up some of his drums a bit before one. He brings them out to the front yard as he waits for Liam, who comes just a few minutes later. Billy piles his drums into the back of the car and gets in.

“Hey Billy, how’s it going? The other guys are already at my house, so we have to hurry back.” Liam says as he drives down main street.

Liam turns into a driveway and parks in the 3 door garage. Billy gets out and brings his drums into the practice space.

“Billy, this is Alan. He plays bass.” Liam says as he introduces the two musicians. “And this is Roy, he plays guitar.”

Alan and Roy both give Billy greetings and shake his hand. Roy speaks up, “Hey Billy, I’m excited to play with you, you’re a great drummer. I’m the guitar player from Frozen With Fear, by the way.”

Part 6

Billy looks around the room, studying it with his eyes. The room is grand, one of the smaller rooms in the house that Liam shared with Rita.

Liam had apparently inherited part of the house from his uncle, which was part of what stirred him to come up here.

“So does anyone have any riffs or lyrics or parts the want to contribute?” Liam asks, while Billy continues to look around.

He notices a large amount of pillars supporting the dome shaped ceiling. The walls have murals on them in some places, and in other places there is wallpaper, posters of assortments of bands, and other decorations. It seems to Billy as if the massive four story house was built onto a cathedral.

He hears the bassist and guitarist start to play and quickly picks up the beat. As the intro is starting to build up towards a verse, he slams on the drums on a beat and the bass and guitar pause as well. Liam starts to sing.

“Fly away... and don’t come back. You’re flying through the sky, If you give up now, you’ll never get back.”

Liam stops singing and the guitar goes into a new riff. The bass and drums help drive it and it comes to a break. Billy plays a small bridge and they dive into the chorus. Liam continues to sing and then leads off into a well built up scream that leads into a solo.

The solo comes to an end and the dive back into the chorus which builds up and finally ends in a chant of: “I won’t help you fly again,” repeated over a few times.

They stop playing.

“Well, that was rather good!” Alan says after they finish. “I was expecting a band like this one to start out with covers.”

“Well, we will need a decent amount of covers that we can switch in and out. We should figure out some songs, but keep it rock n’ roll, you know? Nothing cliche like Green Day or other big bands’ songs.” Liam says.

“Well, I can play ‘Saints of Los Angeles’ really well, if that’s not too cliche.” Billy suggests.

“I tried to get Frozen With Fear to do that once, but they wouldn’t.” Roy says, fingering the frets of the intro lightly, as the bass line starts to play.

Roy plays lightly, fading in similar to the original. Billy comes in slightly later with the full force of the drums.

Liam comes in at the first verse singing “Tonight, there’s gonna be a fight!” perfectly like the original. They soon break into the chorus and Billy starts singing some of the backup along with Roy.

They play through the rest of the song, Roy nails the solo, note for note, every phrase of it. They finish out the song and Billy starts up an original beat. Roy starts off on a riff in C, and soon the bass comes pounding in.

Liam soon comes in singing an almost scat-like improvised melody. Roy slides out of the riff with a pick slide, and Alan and Billy play a bass-and-drums verse, while Liam sings: “If I can break out, if I can just break out...” Roy comes back in mimicking Alan’s jazzy improvised bass line. Liam continues to sing: “ We’ll steal the show, and sell it to the ones who couldn’t go. Make a profit off it, and fix us up nice.”

Liam continues to sing, and Billy continues to play, but his mind slowly drifts away to Rita. He begins to imagine what it would be like to be with her.

They finish and Billy snaps back to reality.

“Hey Billy, sing something for us.” Liam shouts to him.

“Why? You’re already singing.”

“We need to know how well you can sing backup, so humor me.”

Billy pickups the beat with Roy and Alan quickly following back into the chorus of Saints of Los Angeles, as it’s an easy enough song for Billy to sing and play to. He begins to sing the “We are, we are the saints. We signed our lives away.” before Liam stops him.

“Billy, don’t sing too loudly, you might upstage me!” Liam says jokingly, “But really, you are a really good singer.”

The four of them continue to jam for awhile. Between songs Billy asks Liam where Rita is.

“Oh, she’s out with some friends.” He tells him. “Don’t know when she’ll... be... back...” He says as he hears the door slams and hears footsteps stomping across the floor.

Rita walks into the room. “Hey guys,” She says quickly. “Hey Billy. How are you?”

“I’m good. You?” He replies as he sits on the couch next to her. Roy heads off to the bathroom and Liam and Alan head into the kitchen. Rita notices this.

“Not good Billy, not good.” She says as soon as Liam is out of earshot. “My boyfriend and I got into a fight.”

Billy listens.

“I went to his house after my friends all left, and found him passed out in his bed with some redheaded slut with fake breasts.”

Billy just holds her as she falls into his arms sobbing.

Part 7

Billy lies there on the couch, asleep, as Rita sleeps in his arms. He has no clue that it is eight o’clock Monday morning, until Liam wakes him up. “Billy, don’t you have school to get to?”

Billy’s eyes flash open, and he squirms off the couch, being careful not to wake Rita. “Come on, I’ll give you a ride.” Liam offers as Billy gladly accepts.

“Yeah, thanks Liam, I’ll have to get my kit later.”

“Just leave it here for other practices, that way you don’t have to lug it around much.” Liam says as he and Billy get in his car. Liam turns the key and then backs out of the garage.

He drops Billy off at his school, where Rick is waiting at his locker. “Billy!! Where were you last night? Dad was going ballistic!”

“I was hanging out at Liam’s, me and Liam and a couple of other guys were jamming. I told Dad where I was going.”

“Well alright, Billy, but you’re gonna have to answer to Dad still.” Rick says as he walks off.

Billy heads to his second period class and sits down. Billy has few friends, He isn’t really into sports or other school activities. He has to sit through Biology, English, and a couple of other classes, while waiting for lunch.

The bell rings at the end of his sophomore English class and he heads down to the lunchroom. He grabs a tray, gets lunch, and sits down at an empty table. He eats lunch silently until Alan sits down.

“Hey Billy!” Alan exclaims as he sits down.

“I didn’t know that you go to this school, Alan.” Billy says, a little bit surprised to see him.

“Yeah, I just moved here from down in Green Bay and I don’t know much of anyone else here.” The pale skinned, dark haired bassist explains. Alan is a shy, 5'6" social outcast, He can, of course, play bass like nobody else.

“So when did you leave Liam’s, Billy? ‘Cause you were still laying on the couch at 6 p.m. when I left.” Alan asks curiously.

“Uh... hehe... this morning?” Billy says, gaining a shy grin. “I guess I just fell asleep.”

“Well, you looked pretty comfy there with Rita. Thinkin’ about asking her out?” Alan says somewhat teasingly.

“Nah. I mean, she’s kind of going through something with her ex.”

“So, she’s on the rebound?”

“No. Well, I guess. But, I mean, she’s Liam’s cousin...”

“So?” Alan cuts Billy off. “It’s not as if she’s his sister.” He says, looking down at his cell phone on the table, as it vibrates. He picks it up. “Hello?”

“Oh, hey Liam. What’s going on?”

“Alright, I’m down for tonight.”

“Yeah, I’ll tell him.”

“Alright. See you later, then.”

Alan turns to Billy as he hangs up. “That was Liam, he wants to have a practice tonight.”

“Man! I still have to talk to my dad. He’s already pissed.”

“Well, last night would have been more productive if our drummer hadn’t fallen asleep on the couch.”

“Alright, dude. I’ll be there.” Billy says as the bell rings. He gets up and heads to class.

He suffers through Algebra, not being able to focus on anything but what he is going to say to his dad. Billy suffers through the rest of the day, and catches a ride home with Rick.

“You want me to drive around for a little bit? So you can figure out how to get out of it?” Rick asks Billy.

“No. I have to face Dad sooner or later. Might as well be now.” Billy says. He knows that it’s going to get worse the longer he waits.

Rick pulls into the driveway of their house. Their father is a strong, 6'7" man. He comes out of the house and immediately starts yelling at Billy.

“Where were you last night?!? I was worried sick about you!!! March inside and to your room now!! You’re grounded for a month!!” Their father yells, overreacting.

Billy heads inside glumly. Rick and his father follow. Billy heads to his room, about to pick up his sticks he hears his father yell.

“And don’t even think about making a racket with those drums of yours!!”

This makes Billy snap. He gets angry, and starts packing up some of his drums and clothes. He grabs the phone and dials Liam’s number.

“Hey Liam, I need a ride. Can you come pick me up?” Liam agrees and Billy hangs up, he grabs a few drums and storms out of the house to Liam’s car.

Part 8

Billy throws his stuff in the back seat and climbs in the passenger seat of Liam’s car. Liam starts to drive off. He notices Billy’s angry father, but decides not to mention it and continues to drive. Liam Drives to his house and parks in the garage. He turns off the car and pulls the key out of the ignition. “What was all that about, Billy?” Liam asks, calmer than Billy had expected.

Billy shoots him a look, and Liam can tell that Billy doesn’t want to talk about it. “Alright, forget I asked.” Liam says as he gets out. “But we will talk about it after you cool down a bit.”

Billy gets out of the car and grabs his things out of the backseat. He heads inside and sets up a few more drums at his drum set. He waits at his drum set, playing a few beats occasionally, waiting for Alan and Roy. Liam sits down in front of his drum set. “I talked to Rita, and we both agree to letting you crash on the couch for a few days.” Liam tells Billy, who merely nods. “But, if you want to stay here any longer than that, you’re gonna have to pitch in around here.” Billy simply nods again. “Oh, and Billy, Rita wants to talk to you after practice.”

Liam gets up from the chair and Roy and Alan walk in the front door with their guitars and amps. They plug them in, as well as Roy’s selection of effects.

Roy is nineteen years old, and Billy knows that he graduated last year, and plays lead guitar in Frozen With Fear. Billy notices his red-auburn hair is cut short, and he has a small goatee growing on the end of his chin. Roy starts to talk, “So has anyone else noticed that the songs we have feel a little empty? I think that we could use a rhythm guitar player.”

Liam replies. “Yeah, that wouldn’t be a bad idea. But we need to get ready for a show on Saturday. Roy and I will also be playing with Frozen With Fear, as it is their last show.”

“Where’s it going to be,? And what bands are playing?” Alan asks curiously.

“Here.” Liam answers. “So far, it’s only going to be us and Frozen With Fear. Nonetheless refuses to play shows that they aren’t setting up, unless Red Knife plays. Think they’ll be up for it, Billy?”

“I don’t know. I can talk to Rick on Wednesday at practice, but they have a need to headline shows around here.” Billy answers, more calm than before.

“Alright, well, Me and Billy can probably put up some signs at school tomorrow, to try to find a rhythm guitarist. If we have some tryouts and a practice tomorrow, as well as Thursday and Friday, we can probably be ready to play Saturday, right?” Alan says as he checks his bass over.

“Alright, you’re in charge of posters, Alan.” Roy says, hooking up his tremolo and distortion pedals. “Alright, let’s work on some songs, ‘cause we’ve got a half-hour long set or so.”

Alan thumps out a rhythm on the bass and Billy pounds out his bass drum following the bassline with his hi-hat as well. Roy comes in with strong power chords, matching the bassline. They play the rhythm for a little while, but soon give up on it and practice ‘Fly Away’ once.

They continue to practice and jam for a few hours, but Alan has to be home by seven o’clock, so Roy leaves too, giving Alan a ride home.

Liam heads upstairs and comes back down shortly after. “Rita wants to talk to you now, Billy.” Liam says as he heads into the kitchen. “Her room’s upstairs, second door on the left.”

Billy walks up to Rita’s room slowly, wondering what Rita wants to talk to him about. He knocks on her door a few times. “Come in.” Rita calls.

Rita is laying in her bed covered mostly by her sheets. Billy can see a white t-shirt barely above the sheets. She calls him over and he sits on the edge of her bed. Billy looks at Rita, and realizes that she has been crying, most likely for most of the day.

“How are you today, Billy?” Rita asks.

“Well, I’m decent. How are you doing?” Billy says, not trying to get into what’s going on with him.

“It’s just as bad as yesterday, Billy.” She says sniffling. Rita continues to talk, “He called today, apologizing, wanting me to come over to talk. I told him no, and called him a prick and hung up. But he sounded truly sorry, so I went over there anyways, and I found him and a blond bimbo in the shower together.” Rita says, as she sits up. Billy gets up and grabs a box of tissues off the table. He sits back down, handing the box to her. “What do I do, Billy?” Rita sobs, with tears rushing out of her eyes like two waterfalls.

Billy shuffles over next to her and holds her. “I think that if he can’t appreciate you, you shouldn’t be with him.” Billy says, his words coming out of his mouth, almost without thought. “I don’t think he’s worth your tears.”

Rita looks at Billy and stops crying. She throws her arms around Billy in a hug, and then she rests her head on his chest.

Billy embraces her in a hug and kisses her on the forehead. “I better go crash on the couch,” He says, knowing that he has school tomorrow. He gets up and heads for the door. He turns back to say goodnight, but the look on her face stops him. He returns to her bed and sits down next to her softly.

“So Billy, what’s going on with you and your dad?” Rita asks calmly.

“Well, I don’t know really. I mean, he was pretty pissed about me falling asleep here last night. So when I got home, he yelled at me, which was fine, but then he told me I couldn’t play drums. It pissed me off a lot, and I had already said I would come to practice.”

“Well, you should go back once things cool down. I’m sure Rick and your sister are worried about you.”

“Not really, I mean, Rick only is nice to me when it benefits him, and my sister is ‘Daddy’s Little Girl’. It’s really been quite broken since my mom left, you know?”

“Well, if you decide you don’t want to go home, for sure, you can stay here, as long as you help out around here.”

“Yeah, I’ll probably stick around here for a while.” Billy says as Rita’s cell phone rings, playing a 90's metalcore song. Rita grabs it and looks at it.

“It’s my boyfriend. What do I do, Billy?” Rita asks, almost bursting out in tears. Billy looks at Rita, he can tell how much her so called ‘boyfriend’ has hurt her.

“If he’s just going to hurt you, then you’re better off without him.” Billy says, seizing the moment.

“You’re right, Billy, I don’t need him at all.” Rita says. She looks at Billy, and looks into his pure blue eyes, realizing how much he cares about her.

The phone continues to play. Billy grabs it and answers it. A deep voice, which Billy can only assume belongs to Rita’s soon-to-be ex-boyfriend, speaks.

“Hello?” it speaks.

“Hello? Is this the good-for-nothing, cheating bastard that’s now single?” Billy asks sarcastically, but his tone changes to serious. “Stop calling here, Rita wants nothing to do with an asshole like you.” Billy hangs up.

Billy with newfound confidence, puts his arm around Rita. She leans into it and starts to kiss him, nearly mounting him.

Billy kisses Rita back. This lasts awhile, until he rolls her over so that he’s on top of her. He notices the alarm clock on her bedside table. “12:38 a.m.,” he thinks, “I have school and practice and whatever else I’m going to have to do.”

“Hey Rita,” Billy says, rolling off of her, “I’m sorry but I need to get some sleep tonight.”

“Alright, Billy.” Rita says as Billy gets up. “You can sleep here, though. It’s softer than the couch.” Billy sits back down and falls asleep shortly after crawling under the covers.

Part 9

Billy wakes up to Rita kissing him on the cheek lightly before stepping into the shower. He looks over at the alarm clock, it’s 7:20. School starts at 7:40. He quickly gets up and gets dressed. He finds a bathroom down the hall and takes a quick shower.

Billy runs downstairs and finds Liam in the kitchen. “Hey Billy, there’s some eggs on the counter there. Eat up, and I’ll give you a ride to school.” Billy eats quickly and grabs his backpack. He heads out to the garage and Liam drives him to school.

***

Billy gets out of the car and heads up to the front doors. Rick is waiting there for him.

“Billy, Dad says you have to come home right after school today.” Rick says as they walk in to the school. He knows that Billy doesn’t want to deal with their father.

“What’s he going to do if I don’t, Rick?” Billy says, knowing that Rick doesn’t have an answer.

“I don’t know, Billy. But he says to tell you that you won’t get in trouble if you come home today.”

“As opposed to what? A few choice words and a punishment of some sorts that I won’t even obey?” Billy replies as he digs his homework out of his locker.

“I don’t know , Billy, but we’re having practice at Harry’s tomorrow, if you’re even interested in playing for Red Knife anymore.” Rick says.

“Yeah, I’ll still play for you guys. Oh, by the way, Rick, Frozen With Fear is organizing a show this Saturday. They’re trying to get a bigger show than last weekend. The only problem is, that if you guys play, you can’t headline.” Billy says, expecting Rick to have a problem with it. “You up for it?” He asks.

“Sure, no problem.” Rick says, the thought of playing a show seems to have a calming effect. “If this show is as big as you say it’s going to be, it won’t matter who headlines.” Rick says, nearly perfectly calm now.

“Alright, Rick, so I’ll see you at practice tomorrow then.” Billy says as he heads to his homeroom class, which lasts a whole twenty minutes.

Billy heads in and sits down in his usual seat. He notices Alan sitting in the desk next to him.

Alan turns towards Billy, and starts to talk. “Hey Billy, I printed up some flyers last night. You wanna help me put them up this period? I already asked the teacher.” Alan says, excited, as he holds a poster up to show Billy.

“Sure, Alan.” Billy says, taking half of the stack of posters. “I’ll take the first floor, you take this one.”

Billy leaves the classroom.

He holds up one or the posters and reads it. “Local rock band needs rhythm guitar player. Tryouts today at 4:00. You must have your own gear, and be able to provide your own transportation. You must be ready to play gigs immediately.”

Billy notices some contact information near the bottom, as well. However, they’re just names and numbers.

Billy heads downstairs and hangs up all of the posters in various places on first floor. He heads to his first hour class as the bell rings.

Billy fades through the rest of the day, and notices Rita’s car in the parking lot at the end of the day. He heads over to her car, and opens the passenger side door. “Hey Billy, Liam told me to pick you up here.” She says, as he slides into the seat next to her. She lends over and kisses Billy before she drives out of the parking lot.

They ride home silently, Billy too ecstatic to talk, knowing that it’s more than a one-time thing with Rita.

Rita pulls into the garage and shuts the car off. She and Billy get out of the car. Billy heads to the living room where the practice area is setup. Rita heads to her room, after giving Billy a quick kiss.

Roy and Alan have already set up their gear, and Roy starts leading people in. By 4 o’clock, a dozen teenage guitar players have come to try out. Liam asks a few questions and nearly immediately narrows it down to nine people.

Billy examines the guitar players from his drum set. He recognizes two of them as seniors, three are juniors, three are sophomores, and one of them is a freshman.

First up is one of the seniors, apparently named Derek. Billy watches as he plays through a Randy Rhoads solo. He finishes, Roy doesn’t look too pleased. “The spot you’re trying out for is rhythm guitar, not a half-assed lead guitar. You played that solo too slow, with incorrect notes, and went out of time halfway through. Next!” The senior leaves, looking somewhat pissed. The next one to try out is a junior named Frederic.

He plays a few bars of full eighth note chords and then goes into a syncopated rhythm of some sorts. He starts out simple, withe a rhythm of eighth not chords, at somewhere near 160 beats per minute. He then plays a riff that sounds vaguely like an Avenged Sevenfold riff, but he uses multiple chords and less palm mutes. He finishes and Roy gives him a small clap. “Mind hanging around until we’re done with tryouts?” Roy asks.

The nod of his head is a good enough answer for Roy. He calls the freshman up to play. The freshman, named Dan, takes out a Les Paul, the genuine article, and begins to play.

Dan starts in, playing a complex rhythm right away. He slowly fades into a Senses Fail song, and then goes back to another complex rhythm. He plays very well, and Roy tells him to stick around.

3 down, 6 to go. Roy calls a sophomore up to tryout next. The sophomore comes up to play.

The sophomore, named Karl begins to play a metal song on a detuned Epiphone. Billy recognizes the song about 4 or 5 measures in. “Man Made God by In Flames.” Karl finishes the song and Roy looks both pleased and disappointed.

“Great playing, but we’re a rock band, not a metal band.” Roy tells him.

“Oh.” Karl responds, and leaves, uninterested in playing in a rock band.

Roy calls the remaining senior up. He begins to play, but goes out of time, quickly and often. After a few minutes of playing, Roy stops him. “Nice try.” He says, as the senior packs up his guitar and leaves.

Roy calls up the remaining guitar players one by one. Billy watches as they all play, none of them faring any better than each other.

They all play through songs, but nothing is impressive. They leave, and only Frederic and Dan remain.

Roy calls the rest of the band over to him. “So what do you guys think?”

“Well I preferred Dan’s style to Frederic’s.” Liam replies.

“I like how Frederic plays more.” Alan replies. “What do you think, Billy?”

“I don’t really know, I mean they can both play good, but it’s no good if we don’t get along with them. “ Billy replies. “I think we should have an actual practice with each of them.”

“That’s a great idea, Billy!” Roy exclaims. He turns to them and speaks. “Dan, you’re up first.” He says as he picks up his guitar.

Roy, Billy, and Alan dive into the intro for ‘Fly Away’. Dan quickly comes in, improvising a rhythm. It builds up quickly and Dan catches on, he stops with the others. Liam starts to sing “Fly away...” and the rest of the band comes back in.

They play through the song, Roy plays his solo with more confidence.

Dan plays through the song, keeping perfect time, even without knowing the song.

Frederic gets up to play, plugging in his Gibson Xplorer, and running over the strings in a small sweep of a scale.

He waits for Roy and everyone else to start. They decide on ‘Steal The Show’ and begin playing, Frederic quickly jumps in with a fast, upbeat rhythm.

Liam comes in singing “If I can breakout,” leaving out the scat improv this time.

They play through the song, with Frederic playing a few small, quiet sweeps during the bridge, which features little instrumentation, ordinarily.

“So, guys, what do you think?” Roy asks afterwards.

Part 10

“Well, I definitely want Dan on guitar.” Liam says.

“I agree.” Billy says, as the rest of them agree as well.

Roy turns to the two guitar players. He begins to speak. “Well, Frederic, as good as you are at guitar, we’ve decided that you, Dan, fit our sound better. Honestly, if I wanted sweeps, I would have played them myself, but we decided that this would be a rock band, straight up, when we started it. So, basically, your style is just a little bit metal for our sound. Thanks for coming anyways.”

Frederic leaves, as Dan gets his guitar back out to play. They play through their songs and continue to practice, as well as write new songs, until nearly eleven at night.

Billy, tired from playing for hours on end, crashes on the couch falling asleep almost instantly.

***

“Billy!” Rick shouts as he runs up the front steps of the school, trying to catch up with his younger brother. “Hey Billy, you’re coming to practice at Harry’s tonight, right?”

“Yeah, sure, Rick. Right after school, right?” Billy says as he heads to his homeroom class.

“Yeah.” Rick responds.

***

Billy climbs into the van. “Hey Rick. My set is at Liam’s, so I’m gonna have to get it from there, alright?”

Rick agrees and gives Billy a ride. “I have to get to Harry’s now, though.” He says as he pulls up to the house.

“Alright Rick, I’ll find my own ride there then.”

Rick drives down the road as Billy heads in to pack up his drums.

Billy walks into the living room, where his drums are set up and starts packing them up. Rita descends the staircase, but Billy takes no notice of her, until she is standing right next to him.

Billy turns, nearly startled to see Rita. “Hi Billy!” Rita exclaims cheerfully. “What are you doing there?”

“Hey Rita,” Billy says, continuing with his drums, “I’ve got practice with Rick and Red Knife today.”

“I missed you last night, Billy.”

Oh, sorry, I fell asleep on the couch. I was really tired after practice last night.”

“Alright.” Rita says, “Need any help there?”

“No, I’m just about finished, but I do need a ride to Harry’s.”

“Alright.” Rita says, now helping Billy carry his set to her car. “What about a ride back?”

“I don’t know. I’ll call you when I need a ride back.” Billy says as he climbs in the passenger seat.

***

Rick pulls into the driveway of Harry’s home. He grabs his amp and guitar out of the back of his van and carries them into the cellar where Harry and Sandra are already set up.

“So what’s going on with Billy?” Harry asks, when he sees Rick walk in alone.

“I dropped him off to get his drums and he can get his own ride here.”

“Oh,” Harry says as he hears a car pull into the driveway, “that’s probably him now.”

The three of them head out and help Billy with his drums. They bring them in and Billy sets them up as the rest of them start tuning.

They begin playing ‘Twist The Knife’ as well as a few of their older songs. After they run through a few songs, they take a break and starts to talk. “So Billy, what’s this about a show?”

“Well, Liam’s got a show going on at his house Saturday and he wants it to be BIG. Frozen With Fear is planning something special for that night. Oh, and Nonetheless has thing about playing at shows without Red Knife.”

“So if we play and then there’s Frozen With Fear and Nonetheless, that’s only three bands.” Sandra says, slightly confused.

“There’s four bands so far. Me and Liam and a few others are playing in an opening band.”

“Alright, well we should start practicing for that, then.” Harry says.

The thundering bassline to an unfamiliar song begins and Billy starts to pick up a basic beat, gaining complexity slowly. Sandra starts playing after a few measures, playing a fast, hard, and heavy series of chords.

Rick comes in later just as Sandra and Harry abruptly stop. Rick plays a small lead-in and Harry and Sandra return, Billy continues to play, attempting to play a heavier beat.

Sandra starts singing, and Rick’s soloing turns into a more melodic riff. They start to build up and Billy quickly catches on with a drum roll. They stop playing and the three of them shout some unclear gang vocals before playing again.

They continue through the song, Billy improvising the whole thing, and then dive, almost mechanically, into a cover. Billy can easily tell, as it is in an actual key, rather than random notes strung together.

This time, Harry steps up to the microphone, and starts growling. “Whoa-oa-oa-ohh. My big tongue hangs down low to the ground, licking up the sweat coming off of her heels.” Billy tries to keep up, keeping time more or less, rather than an actual drum beat. He throws in a couple of drum rolls in appropriate places, but clearly has never heard the song before. Harry continues with the growls. “You crept up, like a disease...” He then screams some unclear screams, and Sandra takes over.

“And you were there, and I was every question that, never had an answer.” She continues, but Billy tries to start playing a more complex drum beat, but he can tell that they have been practicing without him, and are planning on playing this song at the show.

Harry and Sandra both step up to their mics and start screaming out “This feels like never-ending!” multiple times.

The song comes to a close and Rick turns to Billy. “So what do you think of our opening song then?”

Billy’s face turns to an awkward expression. “I have no clue what song that is actually.”

“Oh, well here it is on this CD, track nine.” Rick says as he picks up a disc. “There’s a stereo over there, take a few minutes to listen to it and get the beats down. I’ll be in the kitchen cooking up pizza or something.” Rick heads out of the cellar and Harry and Sandra follow him.

They head into the house and Harry heads off into his room, Sandra to the bathroom, and Rick goes into the kitchen.

Billy comes in to the unfamiliar house about twenty minutes later. He opens up a few doors as he walks down the hallway, trying to find the kitchen. He opens up the door to a bedroom. Billy nearly gasps at the sight of Harry and Sandra kissing.

Part 11

Billy closes the door, unnoticed. He heads into the kitchen after wandering down the hall a bit farther. Rick is sitting at the counter on a stool, and a pizza is in the middle of the counter. The expression on Rick’s face clearly tells Billy that there is not a single thought of Sandra betraying him.

Billy grabs a slice of pizza and starts to eat it. He quickly finishes the slice, and speaks out. “Hey Rick, um... I don’t think that I’m gonna play with you guys much longer... I’m just not really that into metal like you guys are.”

Rick turns on his stool to face Billy. “That’s alright, I didn’t expect you to like our music that much. We already got an offer from Robby, but since he doesn’t know much of the material yet, we still need you for this show, if you’re up for it.”

“Yeah, sure, I’ll play this show with you guys, but then I’m out.” Billy says, his mind on the image he had just seen a few minutes before. He can tell that Red Knife is about to split, for good, and there is no way that he wants to be caught in the middle of it.

“Alright, Billy.” Rick says and turns back to his pizza, quickly finishing he heads back to the cellar. Billy follows him, and Harry and Sandra come in a few minutes later.

“Alright, what’s the set list going to be for this show?” Harry asks.

Rick quickly replies. “We’re opening with Milk Lizard, then playing two of the songs from Replacing History With Fiction, another cover, ‘Era of Blood’, another two songs from Twist The Knife, and then ending with Twist The Knife.”

“I think that works well,” Sandra replies, “But what about the other cover? What are we going to do for that?”

“How about we let Billy pick it out?” Rick suggests, surprisingly.

“That sounds like a good idea,” Harry replies. “So what will it be, Billy?”

“Huh.” Billy responds, not having expected this. “How about something out of your guys’ comfort zone?” He suggests.

“What did you have in mind?” Sandra asks, quite interested.

“Well,” Billy pauses to think. He starts blasting a drum beat after a few seconds. “How about this?” He says as he pounds on the drums. A rhythm of only kick drum and his lowest tom.

None of them have any clue what he is playing. From the puzzled looks on their faces, he decides to start singing. “From the gutter, the diamond seemed far to bright to see, the gleaming eyes always tend to turn away, just turn away.”

Harry recognizes it and quickly picks up the bassline and the screams, as Billy can’t seem to do the screams well. Sandra and Rick try to figure it out, and Sandra catches on at the chorus, when Billy sings: “Most days I’d sit and wish for, this to fall into the bay, it’s great offense being thievery.”

After they finish, Rick still looks somewhat puzzled. Harry takes a CD case off of the shelf and puts it into the stereo. He skips to the fourth track and Rick hears the same beat Billy was playing. Rick quickly picks up on the song by ear, and plays along with it.

After a few times of playing and getting all the kinks out they continue to practice their original songs. Around eight they decide to call it quits for the night, and Rick, Sandra, and Harry head into the house. Billy calls Rita, and packs up his set.

Rita arrives soon after and Billy climbs in the car. “Hey Billy. How was it?” Rita asks, just as cheerful as earlier.

“I told Rick I was quitting Red Knife tonight.” He states boldly.

“Why? Won’t that leave them without a drummer?” Rita asks.

“They’ve already got another drummer lined up, not that it seems to matter too much...” Billy pauses for a minute, “At least it won’t matter after Rick finds out about Sandra and Harry.”

Rita responds, still cheerful. “Well, then that’s their problem.” She pauses for a second as she pulls into the garage. “Don’t let it ruin your night.” She continues as she gets out of the car. “I’ll help you out with your drums.”

They head inside and Billy heads into the kitchen to get a drink. He grabs a soda and turns around to find a note on the counter. Rita walks in and begins to read it over his shoulder.

“At practice with Frozen With Fear. Late night practice. Gonna crash at Robby’s. -Liam.”

“Well, you know what this means, Billy? We have the whole house to ourselves.” Rita says as she unbuttons her shirt, and begins to kiss Billy. He quickly sets the can down, and gets pulled upstairs by Rita.

Part 12

Screams.

The room is dark, other than the sliver of light creeping through the split in the curtain. Rita snaps to consciousness. She glances a look at the clock; It’s 4:30 am. Billy is screaming out his vocal cords, scared out of his mind from whatever nightmare is raging in his mind. She grabs him, his arms soaked with sweat, and shakes him in a failed attempt to wake him. She quickly goes into the bathroom, and grabs a towel, soaking it in cold water. She puts the towel on Billy and removes the covers, trying to keep him from overheating. It doesn’t help.

Billy continues to scream and yell out in his sleep. Soaked with sweat, twitching and jerking, his voice intensifies in volume and loses any clarity it had before.

Rita rushes to open the curtains and turn on the light, but Billy doesn’t respond, absorbed in his nightmare. Out of ideas, she picks up her phone, quickly dialing Liam’s number.

Jolting awake from his cell phone ringing, Liam recognizes the number and quickly picks up. “What’s going on??” Liam asks in an urgent voice, skipping the pleasant bullshit of greetings. He can hear Billy screaming unintelligibly over the phone.

“I need your help! Billy’s having some sort of nightmare, and I can’t seem to wake him up!” Rita cries out into the receiving end of the phone.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Rita hangs up the phone, and tosses it on the bedside table. She starts trying everything she can think of. Trying to wake him up in any way that she can think of.

The screams continue. They continue to increase in volume, resonating through the room, and throughout the house.

Liam darts into the house, climbing the stairs, he runs into the bedroom. Rita stands back, nearly in tears now. Billy’s movements start to become more violent, and the sheets are soaked with sweat.

“The only thing I can think of that might work is an ice bath.” Liam says, unsure of what to do. “Otherwise, the only thing we can do is wait it out, wait until he exhausts himself.”

Rita heads out to get ice from the freezer, and Billy jerks awake, sitting up.

Liam quickly calls Rita back, and Billy looks at them curiously, not aware of the situation. “What happened?” Billy asks, almost innocently.

Rita is still somewhat speechless, so Liam speaks up. “You were having a nightmare, screaming at the top of your lungs.”

“Oh.” Billy says quietly, unable to say much else. The mixture of embarrassment and confusion on his face tell Liam that billy doesn’t really want to explain.

“Look, you don’t have to tell me anything. You don’t owe me any explanation. But Rita definitely deserves one.” Liam says, and then walks out to catch some more sleep.

Billy makes an attempt at it, but can not think of any words to say. Fortunately for Billy, Rita just changes the soaked sheets and ducks back into bed, quickly asleep. Billy however stays up. After a nightmare like that, there is no way that he can sleep. He shudders at the thoughts of his nightmare, but nothing else comes to mind.

***

Billy recalls one of the few, or perhaps the only piece of good advice Rick has given him. Billy was just twelve, his birthday two weeks prior. “One day, Billy, everyone will let you down somehow, and there are few people you can ever completely trust and count on.” Billy had never imagined that his mother would leave him, especially at the awkward stage of junior high, where he wasn’t quite a child, but not yet a young adult. A confusing time, and the desertion of his mother contributed to it poorly. To add to the chaos, he had felt like his father blamed HIM for it.

This was where his nightmare started.

***

Billy had just come home from school, he generally walked home, as the junior high building was only a few city blocks away. Billy opened the door to his home, which was then a three bedroom house. He set his things in the room that he had shared with Rick at the time. The Ashland Junior High, for reasons which had fathomed most local residents, started and ended an entire hour earlier than the local elementary or high school. His parents both worked full-time, and neither his father nor mother would be home for two more hours.

Billy entered the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and grabbed something to eat out of it. Upon closing it, he turned, noticing the sealed envelope on the counter. He quickly grabbed it, reading the front, “To The ‘Family’,” it stated in an almost satirical tone. He recognized the lettering as his mother’s.

Billy tore it open as fast as he could, it was not like his mother to leave notes on the counter, much less sealed envelopes.

“Dear ‘Family’:

Over the past few months, I have been involved with another man, who fulfills my needs with more success than I ever thought imaginable. I soon came to realize that I had settled for less than I wanted or needed, most likely due to my mother forcing marriage on me.

I have left today, and taken my personal belongings with me, if I forgot anything in my haste, I will not be returning for it. Divorce papers have filed, and should arrive soon. Do not try to contact me; I think it better for everyone if we have a clean separation. I will no longer assume the role of wife, or mother, at least, not to you.

Please forget me,”

Billy, with tears in his eyes, could barely read past the first paragraph, much less to the conclusion and signature of the letter.

His mother, contradicting her written statement, however, arrived in the driveway of her former house. Billy ran out the door in an attempt to make her stay, but she had already gotten back in her car, and backed out of the driveway, leaving her wedding ring on the front porch.

Billy cried out for her to come back for what seemed like hours, but she was already out of sight by the second scream for her to come back. Regardless, he continued to call after his mother, eventually sinking to his knees and bursting with tears.

***

Billy, unsure of the reason it plagued him on this night, noticed the few tears slowly rolling down his face, and wiped them away. After a few hours, he returned to sleep next to Rita, sleeping soundly through the night, and well into the morning of the next day.

Part 13

Waking up drowsily, Billy quickly glances at the alarm clock on the bedside table. “11:37, fuck!” He thinks to himself, “Shit! I’m late for school!”

Suddenly awake, he grabs some clothes and steps into the shower. Upon stepping out, fully dressed, he encounters Rita.

“You planning on going to school today?” She asks in a somewhat sarcastic tone of voice. “Liam says that you probably shouldn’t go to school today, what with the whole scene last night. What was that about anyways?”

He explains his nightmare to her quickly, and then quickly changes the subject, hoping to avoid questions from her. “What am I supposed to do today if I don’t go to school?”

“Well, I have an idea.” She says playfully. She decides to give Billy a break, knowing better than to ask questions about a touchy subject.

Before either of them have a chance to say anything more, Liam bursts into the room. “We need a name.” He states powerfully, and then continues, to further explain himself. “I’m making flyers and advertising for the show this Saturday, and we don’t have a name for our band. I can’t get in contact with anyone else, so this decision is ours, for now at least. It will probably have to be subject to change. Any ideas?”

“Uh, Liam, isn’t it a bit late to be advertising? I mean, the show is in two days, not a whole lot of time for the advertising to have an effect.” Billy says, and Rita heads downstairs unnoticed.

“Well if we want people to show up this late in the game, it’s gonna take a lot of advertising, more than just word of mouth.”

“Well Liam, I’m fresh out of ideas. I’m the drummer anyways, I don’t have that much say in this, do I?”

“You’re also singing backup. So yeah, it’s your decision as well.”

“Well, I don’t have a clue.” He pauses to think. “How about we don’t put ourselves on the flyer, and come up with a name at practice? Maybe someone else will have a good idea.”

“That’s gonna have to work then. Because I can’t think of anything good.” Liam says as he turns on his heels and heads out the door.

Billy follows him down the stairs, and then heads to his drum set. He slams on the snare and a crash cymbal, plays a few beats on various toms, and eventually gives up, and heads towards the computer that Liam is on.

“I just finished printing some flyers off. I’m gonna need some help putting them up around town.” Liam says as he grabs the papers from the printer, handing half of them to Billy. “Put them up everywhere!” He says, heading out to the garage and leaving in his car.

Billy heads outside, and decides on walking around town to put them up.

***

Practice. “Alright, we need a name, any ideas?” Liam asks, in his frontman way. Alan, Roy, and Dan struggle to come up with names, but after a few minutes, they throw out a few names. None of them stick.

After nearly half an hour of random names, they decide to practice their songs. As the end of the night approaches, they now have five songs. Fly Away, Steal The Show, Death of a Hero, Innocence, and Dead On Arrival. They agree on a practice tomorrow, as well as one before the show on Saturday.

***

It’s Saturday, and Billy is sitting behind his drums, pounding out their cover of Saints of Los Angeles, the only cover in their shortened 20 minute set list. They take a quick run through their songs for the show, still nameless.

“We still don’t have a name.” Liam states before they head off for a dinner break before they go on at seven.

“Oh well, we’re the openers anyways. People are still going to be getting here at eight, long after we get off the stage. Like anyone will remember our name. Besides, the few people that will be here when we start will already no we have no name.” Roy replies, slightly annoyed with this continual question.

“Roy’s right. No one will honestly remember our name, we’re just the openers.” Billy says. “I remember my brother’s first show. They didn’t have a name, and there was only a dozen people in the room, like any of them would have cared. They were all there to see whatever band was headlining.”

“If it comes to it, we can always make up something for a name while we’re on the stage.” Alan says, the only person who isn’t beginning to get annoyed with the topic. “Anyways, we should all grab something to eat, and discuss our set list.”

The rest of them agree, and head into the kitchen where they have pizzas set out for the guests. They grab some slices anyways, and start writing out set lists.

“I think we should open with Fly Away.” Dan says with the enthusiasm, anxiousness, and nervousness that teens have before their first show. “It might just be our strongest song. Or at least, it grabs the most attention.”

“Alright. Well, I’m thinking Fly Away, then Innocence, Death of A Hero, our Saints of Los Angeles cover, then Steal the Show, and end with Dead On Arrival, as that is our heaviest, most complex song.” Liam states with his leadership.

The rest of them agree, except for Billy. “I think we should play Saints of Los Angeles second to last.” The rest of the band look at him for an explanation. “Well, it makes sense, we’re the openers, so no one will know our music, and a cover is going to get them to pay attention. To have our ‘finale’ have the most effect it can, we play Saints of Los Angeles second to last, it grabs their attention, and we dive right into Dead On Arrival right after.”

They agree, with Roy being the only one with any genuine experience with set lists, it makes sense to the rest of them.

They finish eating and head to the stage, which is set up in the living room. People start to arrive, and pay their money at the door, where a few of the people from Frozen With Fear are.

The lights go down, and they start in. Strong and heavy. With Roy, Dan, Alan, and Billy playing the intro to Fly Away, making it sound as loud and hard as they can, and their sudden stop, which leads to Liam singing the lyrics, with Billy singing backup. They start back in, and play the song through, Roy plays the solo perfectly, and continues it into the final chorus, improvising it.

They all look to the audience as the applause, nearly deafening, starts. The house is nearly full.

Part 14

The heat from the crowd swells in and they begin to sweat as they start their next song. The song comes in fast with Liam shouting, “You’ve lost your innocence...” into the microphone as loud as he can. There’s a small solo before the chorus, leading into it, and Roy furiously nails it, playing harder than he ever has.

With next to nothing for advertising, Billy can guess that there’s a few hundred people in the crowd. He starts to sing when they hit the chorus of Innocence. There’s another verse and a chorus afterwards, and then it rips into a solo out of nowhere. Roy plays, his fingers flying on the fret board. The solo starts to slow down in the last few measures, when Dan starts playing a harmony to the ending riff.

They start the next song, Death of a Hero, as quick as they can, with all five members of the band trying to avoid an introduction.

It starts with a clean rock riff, which is played by Dan, minimal drums and bass, and no vocals. After the first 8 measures, Roy cuts in playing the same riff with distortion. Dan quickly steps on his pedal, and the drums and bass kick in.

Liam and Billy start singing over the riff, “Tonight will be your last night...” is all they get out before they dive into a verse. He continues to sing, with Billy singing backup lines throughout the song.

They play Steal The Show right after they finish, not taking any more of a break then a few breaths. All applause continually merges into the next song. They finish Steal The Show, and take enough of a break for Liam to say, “Here’s another song, we’re sure most of you will know it.” and Alan starts in with the bassline for a single measure before Roy and Dan, reading each other’s cues, rip into the main riff of Saints of Los Angeles. Billy allows them a measure before slamming on the drums. They come to verse, and the crowd starts screaming as Liam sings.

“Tonight, there’s gonna be a fight. So if you need a place to go...” He continues, nailing the notes, sounding nearly like Vince Neil. The crowd continues to cheer.

Billy does all of the backup vocals, with Alan and Dan helping out on the gang vocals during parts of the chorus. They come to the solo and Roy looks at Dan, who quickly catches on, and they start playing the solo together, which gets the crowd in an uproar. More people have arrived since they started their set. There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that more people will show up as the night goes on.

Roy continues to solo through the last chorus, and Dan returns to the chorus part, as well as singing more. The song comes to a close, and the band immediately starts playing their last song, Dead On Arrival.

Dan and Roy lead the song on a dual intro solo, and the rest of the band quickly comes in after.

Liam starts singing his lyrics, “I called 911 to bring the ambulance, but I knew that you were already dead.” He soon breaks into the chorus, which consists of one line.

“Dead On Arrival.” Liam sings, with Billy and Alan contributing to it as well. Dan and Roy launching into a pre-verse solo.

It continues like this for a few more verses, until Dan and Roy launch into the dueling guitars solo that they wrote for the song. Liam, Billy, and Alan continue to play, occasionally shouting “Dead On Arrival.”

The solo comes to an end, and they play the short chorus a few times, ending it with the entire band stopping, and shouting the lyrics. Liam quickly speaks into the microphone.

“Thank you all for coming! Enjoy the show!” He nearly barks into the microphone. Before anyone can say anything, the band runs off the homemade stage.

They quickly move their gear off of the stage, and Nonetheless starts bringing theirs on, wasting no time. They start playing immediately.

Billy sits down to watch the half hour set of Nonetheless, waiting for Red Knife’s set. His drums are already on stage, as he has the best set, and they were already there. They play through a song, but Billy isn’t really paying attention to the music, just keeping an eye on his set. They play through another song before Liam comes over. He sits down near Billy.

“How’s it going Billy? You keeping an eye on your set? Well, it’s gonna have to wait, there’s a guy out back that wants to talk to our band. I think he’s an agent or with a record company or something.”

Billy follows Liam through the kitchen and out the back door. Roy, Alan, and Dan are already sitting on the wooden benches. There’s an unfamiliar man standing across from them. Billy sits down on a bench with the others. The man begins to speak.

“Hey guys, I’m Mr. Anderson, you can call me John. I’m a talent scout for a local record company, perhaps you’ve heard of us, Sleeping Lime Records. Oh, I didn’t quite catch your names.”

Liam is the first to speak. “I’m Liam, that’s Billy over there, our drummer. Alan, he plays bass. Roy and Dan are on guitar.”

“And your band name?”

“We don’t have one.” Liam replies.

“Well you might want to come up with one, because we want you guys on our label.”

“But we’re just the opening act. Why not any of the other bands here?” Liam asks.

“I’ve heard Red Knife and Nonetheless, and neither of them fit the sound we’re looking for. Neither does Frozen With Fear, and besides, this is their last show anyways. So, are you interested? Think about it and get back to me.” John says as he hands them his business card and heads back through the kitchen.

“Wait, what just happened?” Roy asks. “Does he seriously want to sign us? Maybe we should actually discuss this more with him.”

“Yeah, anyone else here ever hear of this Sleeping Lime Records?” Dan asks.

Alan is the first to reply. “Yeah, they’ve actually got a few good names on their roster. From what I hear they’re trying to organize a tour in support of one of their bands new full length albums. I think that they’re looking for an opening act.”

Liam replies, “Well, then let’s give him a call tomorrow, figure out just what this deal would include. I’d rather not go into this blind. Signing just to get signed seems to be a bad idea.”

Part 15

“We are Nonetheless, thank you and have a good night. Stay tuned for RED KNIFE!” The members of Red Knife could hear the singer of Nonetheless, Jake, as they had found out before the show, introduce them. The rest of Nonetheless had already moved all of their gear off, and the members of Red Knife quickly ran onto the stage.

Rick, Sandra, and Harry quickly plugged in their guitars and got set up, while Billy started pounding the intro to The Dillinger Escape Plan’s ‘Milk Lizard’. To add their own style to it, they had lengthened the intro. Harry suddenly starts playing the bassline, and without any warning, Sandra and Rick slide in to the main riff, and Harry starts screaming out the words, as they call for a more masculine voice.

“My big tongue hangs down low to the ground, licking up the sweat coming off of her heels.” Harry continues to scream, but is quickly drowned out by the audience.

There are nearly twice as many people in the audience now. Red Knife, in it’s short lifetime, had acquired a somewhat large following in the area.

They come to the close of Milk Lizard, and Sandra quickly introduces themselves to the crowd, before starting the next song.

Billy starts spinning one of his sticks in his hand, while he slams the kick drum occasionally, and hits a crash cymbal once in a while. Rick starts playing a thrash intro, while Harry plays a small, but grooving bassline. Sandra starts to play the same part as Rick, and Rick quickly dives into the opening solo of Replacing History With Fiction.

The audience starts to cheer as Rick comes to the end of the solo, ending with a sustained note, and inflicting a wide tremolo upon it. Billy crashes two cymbals as Sandra continues to play the main riff, now singing. Billy has heard the words before, but has even less reason to listen. His eyes have wandered through the crowd, and are resting upon a middle-age woman. He drops his sticks, and looks over to Rick, who has also seen the woman.

Rick misses his cue into the chorus, and Billy manages to pick up the slack quickly, with a small drum intro to the chorus, and crashes two cymbals, which take Rick out of his daze, and then they both continue to play the song. Throughout the song, however, they are both mainly looking towards the door where they had seen her.

They end the song, and Rick is quick to set his guitar on the stand, while Billy sets his sticks on his seat. They quickly head out through the back, thoughts focused on finding the woman who looks like their mother.

Harry and Sandra are still on the stage, attempting to make sense of the event. Harry quickly shouts into his microphone. “Robby, get up here!”

Sandra walks over to him, “You really think that we can go through our set without Rick? ‘Cause I don’t think he’ll be back for it.”

“No, but we have to try. Let’s hope Robby knows some songs that we can play.” Harry says under his breath, as Robby climbs onto the stage. “Hey Robby, do you know Sacre Coeur, by It Dies Today? That was supposed to be in our setlist.”

“Yeah, actually, I do. What’s with Rick and his brother ditching?”

“We have no clue,” Sandra says as she shouts into the microphone. “We weren’t planning on announcing this until the end, but Billy has decided to leave the band, and Robby will playing with us from now on.” She looks to the two, Robby now positioned behind Billy’s drums, Harry standing at his microphone, ready to play. “One! Two! One, Two, Three, Four!” She shouts as Robby smacks the sticks together.

They quickly dive into the song, and soon Harry starts screaming, “From the gutter... The diamond seemed far too bright... The gleaming eyes always tend to turn away, just turn away. And every innocent wish, has granted tragedy, and our hands have since been soiled in the blackest of coal.”

***

Rick and Billy make their way through the crowd, searching for the woman. They get to the door, and see her leaving. “Follow her, Billy. I’m gonna go grab my van from around back.”

Billy runs out the door, to see her getting into the car that he distinctly remembers as his mother’s car. She quickly drives off, and Rick comes around the block with his van. Billy quickly climbs in. “Did you see where she went?”

“Yeah,” Billy says as he points, “In the same car that she had before, same license plates even.”

Rick quickly slams on the gas pedal, and starts following her, he quickly catches up with her, and swears under his breath as he sees the car. She starts to drive faster and more erratically, crossing into the other lane of traffic. She’s seen them following her. She turns a sharp corner, and Rick follows. He sees her turn another corner, but by the time he turns it, she’s long out of sight.

Rick drives back to the show, where he can hear Sandra introducing Twist The Knife. Rick quickly runs in, making his way to the crowd, and Billy follows. The two brothers climb up onto the stage, Rick picks up his guitar, and turning his amp on, he does a quick slide into the intro, only having missed a few measures of the song, all of them being the drum intro.

Robby continues to play until the first break, where he slams on a few cymbals, and Billy quickly takes over, as Robby doesn’t know the rest of the song very well, anyways. Billy slams on some of the drums and does a drum roll on the snare, reintroducing the drums to the song.

Billy plays through the rest of the song flawlessly, as well as Rick, and they close out the set quickly after.

Without anything to concentrate on, Billy’s mind wanders. He begins to ask himself more and more questions, and can’t think of a single answer to any of his questions. The hardest being, “What the fuck was she doing here?”

Part 16

Billy wanders up to the room that, in a sense, is his own. He falls down flat on the bed, the heavy pounding music of Frozen With Fear seeps up from the living room. He can hear Liam’s voice somewhat as he sings whatever song he happens to be singing. He can hear the crunchy guitars of Roy and whoever the other guitarist (Billy had never caught his name, despite a few conversations with him.) He can hear the drums beating as Robby pounds out whatever drums happen to go with the song. But most of all, he can feel the bass.

He sits up on the bed, wishing he could sleep. Tired from lack of sleep other nights, as well as many practices and a half hour or so of playing. Frozen With Fear happen to be about five minutes into their hour long set. As their last show, they figured they would play all of their songs, which would last approximately an hour.

Billy gets up, and wanders down to the kitchen. Like any other show in a house, the kitchen is filled with cigarette smoke, overflowing ashtrays, ‘brownies’, and mostly, beer. Billy looks around, all the counters except for one, which is occupied by a couple making out, are littered with empty beer bottles and cans, and the fridge is packed with the filled counterparts.

Billy opens it and reaches past all the alcohol, grabbing a soda. Slamming the door shut with his foot, he heads towards the door.

No one is manning the door, as anyone showing up this late already missed the majority of the music, or they could hear it from outside. Billy heads out the door to take a walk, in an effort to clear his head.

Thirty minutes later, he returns, in no better condition than before. The show is nearly over, and the house is starting to empty itself. Unfortunately, some of the people didn’t make it past the front lawn.

Billy looks around, people are passed out all over the lawn, as well as it being littered with all sorts of trash. He pays no attention to the people, and heads back inside, which is no better than the outside.

He sees a couple heading up the stairs, and takes no notice of them, until the girl shouts at him. “Billy!”

He soon realizes that it’s Rita, and he can only assume that the man, which after a quick observation happens to be pushing her up the stairs, is her ex-boyfriend.

Without thinking, he runs up the stairs. The man turns around just in time for Billy to land a punch in his gut. Billy quickly sizes up the person he has just attacked.

Despite him being above Billy on the stairs, chances are, stands a foot taller than him. He easily outweighs Billy by about sixty pounds.

Billy lands another punch with his left fist to his gut again, and his right fist soon makes contact with his jaw. Before the man has a chance to retaliate, stunned by the sight of a small high school boy attacking him, Billy hits his head into the wall near them, cracking the drywall. He quickly reverses his motion, and without a split-second of hesitation, sends the guy through the railing, breaking it off. He lands, unconscious, on the floor, on top of the railing.

“Are you alright, Rita?” He quickly asks.

In tears she responds, “I think so. He had a gun in the pocket of his jacket. I was afraid he was going to shoot you.”

The crowd, which had been previously watching Frozen With Fear, is now standing around him, some looking at the person on the ground, some staring at him and Rita. Rick is among them, furiously dialing the police.

Liam has made his way through the crowd, and no one has noticed the lack of music. He notices the shape inside his coat pocket, and looks at Rita, who confirms his suspicions with a simple nod.

He shouts at the crowd for everyone to “sit the fuck down.” He then heads outside, where the police are already coming up the street. He knows that the police are going to want to talk to people who are there, just because they were.

The policemen get out of the car, and he heads over to one of them. “The guy had a gun. He still has it in his pocket, but he’s on the ground, unconscious and bleeding fairly badly.”

They make their way inside, and soon after is brought out on a stretcher and placed in an ambulance. By the time everyone can leave, it’s already 2:30 a.m.

“So much for getting to sleep early,” Billy says, nearly exhausted. He heads up to the room, hand in hand with Rita, and falls asleep shortly after his head hits the pillow.

Part 17

10:00, the alarm is ringing. With a quick slam of the snooze button, it’s back to sleep for another nine minutes. After getting out of bed and in and out of the shower, it’s time for practice.

Keys: check. Guitar: check. Amp: check.

Rick lazily drags himself into the driver’s seat after putting his gear in the back of the van. He turns the key in the ignition and drives out of the driveway, and to Harry’s house, where Sandra and Robby already are.

Wide awake now, he drives down the road, wary of the blue ‘02 Mustang of his mother’s. Nothing has been predictable lately, and sleeping has been hard. Rick shrugs his thoughts off and pulls into Harry’s driveway, as he has done many times before.

Harry’s parents are always working, or away for the weekend, which gives them the freedom to practice at his house almost anytime.

Getting out of the van, Rick grabs his gear and heads inside, down the cellar, like several other practices. It starts out like normal, playing through the songs, and taking a break halfway into it for food.

As usual Rick heads into the kitchen, accompanied by Robby now, and Harry heads off to his room to change, while Sandra wanders through the house.

After eating, Rick heads through the house to find Harry and Sandra, to continue practice.

“Sandra! Harry!” he shouts out, too tired and lazy to actually attempt to find them. “You ready to continue practice?”

Ten minutes, no response.

Rick heads to Harry’s room and knocks quickly before walking in. There’s no one there, nothing but the usual tidiness of the room.

He heads out of the room and starts to walk down the hallway. He begins to call out for them. “Sandra! Harry! Where are you?” He heads upstairs, but sees no sign of them anywhere. Thinking to himself, he wonders if maybe they are already down in the cellar.

He continues to check the second floor, and walks by the closed door of Harry’s parents room. He only has to hear one sound, one moan, to know what’s going on behind closed doors. He begins to mutter under his breath.

“Bitch.”

Rick storms down the stairs, and out of the house. He goes down into the cellar, smashing nearly everything in sight.

Anger pulses through him, and a need for retaliation and vengeance comes to the forefront. Adrenaline begins to rage. Time feels slower, everything feels lighter. Faster, stronger, heightened senses, acting on pure instinct, like an animal.

Impulsively acting, he grabs the bass that Harry had left on the stand next to his amp. He slams it through the speaker hole, and continues to smash it over the top of the amp. He throws the two pieces of the bass in random directions, and picks up Sandra’s guitar, intent on doing the same thing, but gets no chance to. Robby walks in.

“Dude! What the fuck are you doing, man?” He says grabbing the guitar out of his hands, stunned for a second.

“She’s a fucking whore!!” Rick yells back at him, angrier than ever.

In a moment of compassion, Robby hands him back the guitar, and starts to pack up his drums. Nearly four years of dating the same girl, only to discover her cheating on him for who knows how long with his best friend, smashing guitars and amps is nowhere near what they deserve. But then again, four years hurts less than five.

Rick smashes the guitar over the 100 watt Crate, and then throws the amp at the wall as hard as he can. It smashes into pieces of metal plastic and wood, but remains mostly intact. Out of anger and frustration, he picks up the body of her guitar, and slams it into the speaker of the amp.

He grabs the microphone stands, and smashes the microphones into pieces on the floors, snaps the stands under his foot, and throws the pieces on the ground. He takes the Speakers down from the stands and carries them out of the cellar.

Robby grabs his drums and follows Rick to his van. Rick unlocks it, and they put their stuff in the back.

Rick climbs into the driver’s seat and Robby comes over to the window. “Hey Rick, do you really think you should be driving right now? Here, hand me the keys, and I’ll drive.”

Rick glares at him angrily, but then eases up, and gives him the keys. He climbs out and gets into the passenger seat, and Robby starts up the car and drives towards Rick’s house.

Forehead wrinkled with thought and anger, Rick turns to the window. “Fuck. That’s just great! What the hell is SHE doing here?!?” He shouts out loud as Robby pulls into the driveway of Rick’s house.

Rick gets out of the van, and walks over to the blue Mustang calmly. “Fuck!” He screams at the top of his lungs. Consumed by four years of bottled anger, smashing open all at once, flooding him. He swings his arm, and his fist goes through the window in a flurry of shards and warm, red spatter.

The house door opens, and a woman runs out, screaming. “What the fuck are you doing?!? Or for that matter, what the fuck are you thinking?!?”

Rick turns to the face that has been haunting him at night for four years. Still filled with adrenaline and anger, and still acting on impulse, he makes a split-second decision. Her face would look better with a broken nose and blood and bruises all over it. He quickly throws a punch at her, doing the damage he expects and desires, and soaking his other fist with her dark red blood.

His unexpected punch knocks her down. Rick’s father has seen the whole thing and is outside now. Rick hadn’t even noticed him coming out. He picks her up off the ground and stands her up.

He starts screaming every name in the book he can think of at her. Most of them incomprehensible. He doesn’t stop until his father screams at him.

“Rick!! What the hell?!? Have you completely lost it?!?”

His eloquent, and completely expected reply is simply, “She’s a fucking bitch.”

Two seconds later, he blacks out.

***

Waking up with face against the ground, Robby is there to help him up. “Your father told me to tell you that when you’re ready, you can come back into the house and hear what they have to say.” He lights up a cigarette, his first one all day, and starts to smoke. “Oh, and they’re expecting an apology.” He says quickly as he backs away.

“HE EXPECTS ME TO APOLOGIZE TO THAT WHORE THAT RUINED MY LIFE?!?!?”

Robby simply takes a step back, and holds up his arms, as if to say, ‘Don’t look at me, I’ve got nothing to do with it.’

“Fuck it. I need a place to stay, you think I can crash at your place until this blows over, Robby?” Rick says, unexpectedly.

In no position to say no, Robby tells him he can, and climbs back in the driver’s seat.

Robby’s house is outside of town, and the car ride gives Rick time to cool off. Robby glances over, and notices that the adrenaline rush has ended, and starts to speak. “Can I ask you a question?” He says as he starts to smoke another cigarette. “Is Red Knife dead, man?”

Rick takes a few minutes to think. In a tone of voice that rings with vengeance as it resonates, he replies. “No. It’s not. I’m going to rebuild Red Knife. Bigger. Better. Heavier.” He pauses. “You still want to be on drums then Robby?”

“Fuck yeah!” He says, eager to see what Rick has in store.

He waits a few minutes, and as he turns down the long road to his house, he starts to talk again.

“Hey Rick, don’t bad things happen in three’s, man?”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that. But fuck it, whatever happens, it can’t be any worse than today has been going already.”

It’s exactly noon as they pull into the driveway of Robby’s house. The plain white house, with it’s three stories, and acres of woods around it, have the feel of safety to Rick. He and Robby get the stuff out of Rick’s van, and bring it down to the basement, which is entirely Robby’s bedroom.

“So who are you thinking of getting to be in Red Knife?” Robby asks as he sets his drums up in their normal position towards the back of the room.

Rick sets the speakers and his amp down on the shag carpet, and plugs the amp in. “I don’t know. I don’t really know much of anyone.”

“How about Ben?”

“Who’s Ben?” Rick asks as he takes his guitar out of the case.

“He played rhythm guitar in Frozen With Fear with me.”

“Got his phone number? Let’s get him over here.”

Part 18

Billy wakes up to the sunlight creeping in through the curtains. Waking up, still tired, he nearly gags. The entire house has a stench of beer. He heads downstairs, to find Liam and Rita already starting to clean up the house. They’ve already cleaned up the mess near the stairs, and he walks over to the kitchen where Liam and Rita are.

“So what was with the guy last night?” Billy asks as he approaches them.

“He’s my ex-boyfriend, if that explains anything.” Rita replies.

“Why did he have a gun?” Liam asks.

“I don’t really know,” She says as she sits down, “He was trying to get me back, or get back at me or something, I don’t really know.”

Liam and Billy look to each other, and decide not to ask any more questions.

“Oh, Billy!” Liam says, somewhat excited. “We still have to call that number on the card that we got.”

“Alright.” Billy says as Liam grabs the phone, and dials the number on the card. It rings a few times, and then goes to the answer machine.

“Hello, if you’re an asshole from the shit band called Frozen With Fear, please leave an angry rant after the beep, and we’ll tell you to fuck off. Assholes.”

“Well, they’re nice.” Billy states simply. “Maybe we should call Roy, and find out the story behind this? After all, he’s the connection between our band and Frozen With Fear.”

“That sounds like a good idea.” Liam says as he hangs up the phone, and dials Roy’s number.

“Hello? Hey Liam, what’s up?” Roy says as he answers the phone.

“Hey Roy, did Frozen With Fear ever piss any band off, like a lot?”

“Yeah, we had a feud going on with that shit punk band, The Rabies.” Roy says, as he starts to explain.

***

It was May of 2007, our first show. We had been practicing for months, and had managed to avoid the opening spot. We were second on the bill, before us was The Rabies, they were supposed to be the opening act.

When we got there, we had been told that The Rabies had refused to open the show, even though it was their first show as well. We were asked to open it instead, and since we didn’t really care when we played, as long as we got to play, we agreed.

Will, however, was pissed. We were offered a better playing time, and were forced to open, at least that’s how he saw it.

So, when we were done with our set, we headed out to the parking lot. Robby and Will both wanted to have a smoke. So we’re standing around there, and Will starts talking about how The Rabies are assholes and such. He had the great idea to slash their tires, just to fuck with them.

That really backfired.

After they were done with their set, we were still standing around in the parking lot near our van. They came out with their stuff, load into their van, and then they noticed that their tires have been slashed.

They came over to us and started talking shit, accusing us of it. Will stepped to the front of our group, got up in their faces, and was insulting them. After a few minutes of exchanging insults, he threw the first punch.

Their idiot guitarist was the one closest to him, and got pretty beat up before anyone else had a chance to do anything. We ended up pulling him off of the dude, who was then laying on the ground, beaten and bruised, mostly from the rings on Will’s fingers.

Two of the other three started throwing punches at us. The third, picked up a tire iron out of the back of their van. That’s when things got ugly.

He started swinging it at us, hit Will in the stomach, but Will kinda deserved it anyways. He swung it at me, but I ducked and it hit the back window of our van, sent glass flying everywhere. He then slammed it through the other window, and started smashing up our van.

Ben and Robby had managed to wrestle the other two to the ground, and Will was already down.

Ken, our rhythm guitarist, and I were left standing. I grabbed the tire iron out of the guys hands, and Ken, who is probably the biggest of all of us, threw a punch at his face. He instantly went down cold.

The bar manager came out and started swearing at us. He told us to take our money and get the fuck out of his parking lot, or he was going to call the cops.

The next show we played, in late June of the same year, was with them as well. We were offered the second highest place on the bill, and they were still opening. During our set, they were at the front, booing and swearing at us. During one of my solos, Will jumped down into the mosh pit and started fighting with them. We stopped playing, and tried to pull him out, but got sucked into the fight.

The owner of the bar came out with a shot gun, and fired it over our heads, and everyone stopped. However, he had been enjoying our set, so he kicked them out, and let us continue playing. He actually gave us their cut of the door as well.

But as they were leaving, they swore that they would get us back, and that there was no way that they would let us have the last laugh.

And the end of our finale, there was a huge explosion from outside. It would have given us a great effect for a live recording, but regardless, it left us without a van.

We had to find other rides home, and eventually did, at three in the morning.

***

“Ever since then, we’ve been enemies, and we’re always booking shows nearby theirs at the same time and everything. Or, on the rare occasion that we play with them, we get into fights with them.” Roy says as the rest of the band listens.

We had told Roy to come over shortly after he started to explain, as well as getting Dan and Alan over to the house. We had explained everything, and now, so had Roy.

“So, since you guys broke up, they’re just fucking with any bands from this area?” Dan asks curiously.

“It seems like it.” Roy replies simply. “I think we ought to fuck them over bad enough to get them to stop. I heard they stole a guitar from Nonetheless yesterday, too. Oh, and they had a show last night, nearby, that was actually a release show. Apparently they recorded a full CD of shit.”

“I heard they were going on tour to support that CD, too.” Liam contributes to the conversation.

“Well what does this have anything to do with us, really?” Alan asks, somewhat confused, “Are they that big of assholes, that they’re fucking with us, just because Roy is in our band now?”

“Yeah, that’s basically it.” Billy answers. “Maybe we could plan shows at the same time, for an entire tour, to completely outdo them.”

“That’s... actually a pretty good idea.” Roy says as he thinks. “But we don’t have a name, or anything recorded, or any merchandise.”

“How about Dead On Arrival?” Alan suggests. “Think about it; it IS our best song, and it wouldn’t be a bad name, at least that’s what I think.”

“I don’t know... Dead On Arrival seems too... emo.” Roy says. “Maybe just DOA, instead?”

“That actually sounds like a great idea.” Liam says.

Billy, Alan, and Dan all agree. “DOA it is, then.” Roy states proudly.

Part 19

Monday morning.

Billy wakes up at seven, and steps in the shower before heading out to school. Rita is still asleep so he decides not to wake her to get a ride.

The school is within walking the distance, but not real close. It gives Billy some time to think as he heads there.

He quickly gets to school, and walks in as the bell rings. Rick is at his locker.

“Mom’s at our house.” He states simply.

“What?!? Why?!? What the fuck?!?” Billy shouts, nearly at the top of his lungs.

His comment is easily overheard by the other students, but he quickly moves away from the area. In a more calm voice, he asks again. “What’s mom doing here?”

“I don’t know. I punched out her window, and clocked her in the face.” He says as he holds up his hand, which is bandaged tightly. He continues, “They’re also in the principal’s office right now, talking to the principal about you. I think they’re trying to do something about your living situation.”

“Fuck that. I’m not going to stay at the house with her there. But congratulations on punching her. Stupid bitch deserved it.”

“I don’t know. Unless you ditch school, I’m pretty sure they can legally drag you out of here if they want to. They, unfortunately, are your parents. I’m already eighteen, so there’s nothing they can do about me. And yeah, she did deserve it.”

“Well I’m not going to stand around waiting for them to drag me out of here. Fuck that. I’m getting out of here now.” Billy says as he walks out the front door.

Rick follows him out. “You do realize that they’ll catch you for truancy easily if you’re on foot, right? Come on, I’ll give you a ride.”

Billy accepts, and climbs into the car. Without anything better to talk about, Billy asks Rick about Red Knife. “So Rick, how’s it going with Red Knife?”

“It’s alright, we could use a permanent bassist, and we need a vocalist, but we’re writing some new songs, and rewriting some of our other songs, like Era Of Blood.”

“What about Harry, I thought he was playing bass, and Sandra, I thought she was on vocals?”

“Those assholes? Red Knife was my band, and if John was here, he’d agree with me too. I’ve got Robby on drums, and Ben is playing rhythm guitar. Ben was the rhythm guitarist in Frozen With Fear. He replaced Ken after a few shows. Keith is filling in on bass. He’s from Nonetheless.”

“So, you finally ditched Harry and Sandra.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I found out about them awhile ago, but I had no clue how to tell you.”

“Oh. Well it doesn’t matter now. But once we get a singer, we’re gonna start recording another album. What about you Billy? How’s... whatever your band is called, going?”

“We named ourselves DOA. We’re doing fine though, we’re thinking of recording and doing a tour this summer.”

“That sounds cool. Well here we are.” Rick says as he pulls into the driveway of Liam’s house.

Billy gets out, and walks in the front door and sits down behind his drum set immediately. He starts playing, and about an hour later, Liam comes over.

“Hey Billy, what are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be at school?”

“Yeah, but my mom’s back in town, and my parents were at school trying to get me to come back to their house. Like I want to live with that bitch.”

“Oh, alright. Well, we’re having practice tonight. I’m thinking we could try to get Nonetheless or Red Knife to do a summer tour with us. But we need to record still, so I set us up with a local guy, who will help us record.”

“Alright.” Billy says, and he goes back to his drumming. Liam leaves.

***

“So we’re all down for recording this weekend? The plan is to stay in the studio until we get our songs recorded perfectly.” Liam says, leading the band.

The rest of them agree.

They had spent most of band practice making phone calls to Ryan, the person who agreed to record them, as well as Jake from Nonetheless.

In two weeks, they would hopefully be on the road with Nonetheless. Performing on a Tour of Vengeance, sabotaging The Rabies with every chance they had. Jake had agreed to set it all up, Nonetheless had been very keen on a tour when Liam suggested it to them.

To Billy, however, this was a tour of freedom.

Part 20

“...taking vengeance!!!” Liam screams, ending the vocals for the recording. DOA had locked themselves in a studio with Ryan, in order to produce an EP, with six songs, and an acoustic version of Innocence.

They spent all of their free time in the studio writing their new song “Taking Vengeance.”

“What are we going to call our EP?” Billy asks as they finish recording the last track.

“How about calling it Innocence?” Alan suggests, as he pulls out a sheet of paper from his pocket. “I was thinking that we could use this as the artwork for it.” He says as he displays the drawing for everyone to see. It’s a gruesome drawing, but as Ryan sees it, he gives his opinion.

“Go with that. I don’t think you’ll be able to find any other artwork that’s better than that if you tried.” He says.

The rest of the band agrees on it, partially because of Ryan’s professional opinion.

An hour later, he turns on speakers and plays the EP, fully mixed, for the band. They all like it, and after a few minor tweaks, they start to prepare it for printing.

***

Friday. School has officially been out for a week, and Billy decides to sleep in late. He wakes up around noon, awake just in time for one last practice before they leave for their tour, which is planned to last until early August.

Their practice lasts for an hour, and is basically just a quick run-through of their six songs, as well as a few covers that they have to fill out their set.

They run through their songs, until Jake, and the rest of Nonetheless arrive in the tour bus that they would be sharing for the next two months. Jake walks to the door, where he knocks, and is greeted by Alan.

“Hey Jake, are we ready to head out, or what?” He asks, excited.

“Yeah, you guys just gotta pack up your stuff, and put it on the bus. We’ll even help.” He replies as the other members of Nonetheless step off of the bus to help.

Ten minutes later, and they have Billy’s drums, three electric guitars, a bass, all of the amps, microphones, cables, and everything else they need, packed on to the bus.

Jake starts to talk. “Alright, I’m Jake, I’ll be driving most of the time, but anyone else that has their license and wants to drive can. I sing for Nonetheless, as you all know.” Jake is an average height man in his late teens. Blonde hair, blue eyes, the perfect idea of an Aryan.

“This is Keith,” He says as he introduces a black-haired man, about the same age and height as himself. He steps forward, wearing a shirt reading ‘Throwdown’. He smiles with a weird twist to it, and his eyes seem to have a “don’t fuck with me, I’m crazy” type of attitude. “He plays bass with us.”

“That’s Ken, our rhythm guitarist. You already know him, Roy, since he played with you guys in Frozen With Fear in the beginning.” Ken looks like an average guy in his late teens, just graduated last year, barely. He has his black hair dyed red in places, and spiked crazily. He however, stands at a towering 6'9".

“Bishop over here, he shreds our leads.” Jake says as he introduces a man in a black leather trench coat, with spiked bracelets and chains on his arms. He stands a few inches taller than Jake, but not by much. He simply eyes them all suspiciously, his long black hair hanging over his eyes as well as the rest of his face, what could be seen of his face is a very pale white.

“...and this is Kate, our drummer.” Jake says as a young, energetic girl skips forward. Golden blonde hair, and somewhat short. She looks like the youngest of them all, no more than 17, at most. She seems quite younger than the rest of them, or perhaps just more innocent.

Introductions now in place, the ten teenagers climb onto the bus with their backpacks, duffel bags, and guitar cases in hand, they pack them into the closet, or just shove them somewhere in the back. The two bands sit where they want, some in actual seats, some with acoustic guitars out already, as Jake begins to drive down the highway.

“Our first show is down in Minneapolis, tomorrow night. DOA goes on at eight, and we go on at nine. It’s an average bar, but if we do our advertising right, we should be able to outdo The Rabies. They’re playing at a bar about five blocks away from our venue.” Jake says from the driver’s seat.

“So what are we going to do when we get there?” Billy asks, sitting in the passenger seat.

“I don’t know, but we should probably start off with something big, because they won’t be expecting too much tonight.” Liam says, sitting near the front.

“I have an idea.” Bishop states powerfully, his few words having a dramatic effect as always. “They stole my guitar that Saturday night, and I intend to get it back.”

“So we’re gonna steal their shit then?” Liam asks.

“As good a plan as any, after all, they can’t play shows if they don’t have any gear.” Jake replies.

“What if they catch us?” Billy asks. “After all, didn’t Roy say that they once blew up their van? These guys could be pretty dangerous.”

“There’s ten of us, and only four of them. We should be able to take them, even if we split up.” Jake replies.

“And we all know that you can kick serious ass, Billy.” Liam says, jokingly.

“Yeah.” Billy says nervously. “I’m gonna go to the back now, alright?”

He gets up, and walks toward the back of the bus. It’s filled with bags, and six beds. Billy sits down on one of the lower beds, his thoughts spinning around in his head. Roy and Dan are sitting back there on a couple of the beds, with acoustic guitars out.

A few minutes later, and Kate walks in. “You’re the drummer in DOA, right?” She says as she sits down next to him, as Roy and Dan play an acoustic version of a song that Billy doesn’t recognize. They start singing lightly, “I’ve got lies to tell your children, when my smile pierces through your bones...”

“Yeah,” Billy says, turning his attention back to Kate, “but I’m honestly just glad to be getting away from my home.”

“I heard you lived at Liam’s though...” She says, phrasing it nearly like a question.

“Well yeah, because I don’t want to stay at my house. That’s what I’m glad to be getting away from.” Billy replies, wondering what she’s doing hanging out with a bunch of guys who don’t seem to have anything in common with each other.

Roy and Dan continue to play and sing, not at all phased by their conversation, creating a soundtrack to their discussion. “She’s in the shower, and her skin glistens...”

“Yeah, I know where you’re coming from. My dad is pretty horrible. That’s why I stay at my mom’s most of the time.” She says, relating to him, as she moves closer.

“Yeah. My mom just showed up a few weeks ago, after being gone for four years or so. It really pissed me off. My brother actually punched her in the face.” Billy says laughing, as he stealthily makes some more space between them

“Holy fuck. I wish I could punch my dad in the face and get away with it.” She says, ‘fuck’ ringing off of her lips nearly unexpectedly.

They continue talking, slowly finding things they have in common, bonding. Dan and Roy continue to play and sing. “I can make you laugh so fucking hard it hurts you, inside, almost.”

An hour later, Dan and Roy have stopped playing, and left the back. They’re halfway there. Jake turns a sharp corner, pulling into a gas station. Billy and Kate fall over on the bed together, and in the heat of the moment, they lock lips. Billy pushes her off rather quickly, and sits up. His mind is racing, but really, only one thing goes through Billy’s mind.

Rita.

Part 21

“This never happened.” Billy says as he leaves the bus.

He heads in to the gas station, passing Jake along the way, who is filling up the gas tank. Upon entering the gas station, he realizes that he is broke. With empty pockets, he leaves the gas station, and goes to sit in the passenger seat.

Not even two hours away, and there’s already some tension and awkwardness. Cue two long months on the road.

He sits in the seat, his head resting on his hand, as he stares out the window at the scenery nearby.

A small rundown town, with grungy buildings, and cracked roads and sidewalks. Weathered and rusted signs that direct traffic. Cars tainted with rust, parked in yards. Just another average, rundown town on the highway.

Jake climbs back in the driver’s seat, and waits as the rest of the people get back on. Jake pulls out of the gas station, and continues down the highway.

***

Two hours later, and they arrive in Minneapolis, with an entire day’s worth of time to kill.

Sitting in the hotel lobby, Jake starts to talk. “Alright, for the rest of today, you guys can do whatever you want, just be back here, ready for sabotage, by tomorrow morning.” He says as he heads off, out of the hotel.

They all start to head out. Bishop stops Billy before he heads out. “You come with me. I’m not waiting until tomorrow to get my guitar back.”

“What do you need me for?” Billy asks, somewhat confused.

“Because, I need a lookout, and some back up if I get into trouble.” He says, and then with a sly smile, barely visible behind his hair, he continues. “Plus, it only takes one phone call, and you could be single.”

“Alright,” Billy replies dismally. Bishop leads him out of the hotel, and starts to walk to the hotel where The Rabies are staying.

They walk along the cracked sidewalks, with grass and weeds growing out through the cracks, down six or seven blocks.

They approach the brick building, with its rustic yet appealing charm, from behind it, cutting through the yard of the house behind it. They step onto the pavement as quietly as they can, and make their way to the trailer with ‘THE RABIES’ spray painted on it huge stencil letters.

They approach the door on the trailer, which is locked, as they expected. Bishop takes a pair of bolt cutters out from underneath his coat obviously he had been planning this for a while now. He quickly cuts the lock off of the door, and opens it. His eyes quickly search the inside of it.

They finally rest on three guitar cases. He grabs one, which is obviously his. “Grab the other two.” He tells Billy.

Billy reaches in and grabs the other two cases, as Bishop sets his down and heads over to the van.

He opens the gas tank, and takes off the cover of it. Reaching into his coat, he takes out a bottle of lighter fluid and starts to leave a trail of oil leading away from the gas tank.

He runs out, and takes out a second bottle, which he then throws all over the van.

He lights a match and drops in the ground at the end of the line, which immediately catches flame. Picking up his guitar, he starts to walk back the same way he came.

“That was easier than I expected.” He says as they approach the hotel, where he puts the guitars in the bus. “Come on, I’ll buy you a beer.” He says as he starts off towards a convenience store.

“I don’t drink.” Billy responds, although Bishop is quick to reply.

“Yet.”

***

After nearly gagging on the first beer, and drinking a second one with ease, Billy cracks open a third can. He and Bishop are sitting on the bus, at the table with a twenty four pack. Bishop has already drank six or seven, and seems completely unaffected.

Jake walks onto the bus. “What the hell are you doing Bishop?” He nearly screams.

“Drinking beer,” He replies, his answer simple as always.

“Why is Billy?” He shouts. “You do realize that he’s a MINOR?!?”

“Dude, Jake, It’s no big deal.” Billy says, slurring his words ever so slightly. “This is my last beer, anyways.” He says as he gets up and heads out of the bus.

Jake closes the door behind him, and is yelling at Bishop. “How could you do something so irresponsible?! What were you thinking?”

Billy walks away, heading up to his hotel room, as it’s getting late, or at least it seems so to him. He throws the empty can in a trash barrel, and heads towards the elevator.

He gets in the elevator, and just as the doors are about to close, he presses the button, holding them open for Kate, who quickly runs in.

“Hey Billy. How’s it going?” She says, out of breath.

“I’m alright,” He says, slurring his words more, but Kate doesn’t seem to notice. “What’s the rush?”

“Well, I wanted to talk to you about earlier.” She says with a touch of innocence. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for anything to happen. I knew you were dating Liam’s cousin, but... but, I don’t know. I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright.” Billy replies, the alcohol starting to affect him, “To be honest, I think I kissed you back. But that’s all it was. Just a kiss.” He says, seeing her eyes gazing at him with some sort of affection, or perhaps lust.

Either way, they stumble out into the hall a minute or so later, and slip into her hotel room.

Part 22

As easily and stealthily as they had slipped into the room and underneath the covers hours ago, Billy slips out the door and into the hallway.

His head is spinning, and hurts like hell, but he manages to wander in the dim light of the hallway back to his own room. He fumbles with empty pockets before finding his key card inside his wallet. He slips it inside the locking mechanism, and it clicks open with the green light from a small but bright LED light.

Stumbling into the room, he stumbles and falls down on the bed that isn't occupied, and barely manages to read out 3:30 in his hungover stupor.

He manages to sit up, clenching the sides of his head and sitting up on the edge of the shitty hotel bed in the dark, trying to line up a single thought that might just make sense. A few minutes later he gets up and steps in the shower in an attempt to sober himself up.

Half an hour later, he wanders back to his bed, his brain still aching. He lies awake for another hour before falling asleep on what are probably rusty springs, with the only thing keeping them from stabbing him in the back are a few layers of fabric.

***

Morning.

Billy wakes up three hours later at eight in the morning. “Fuck.” he mutters under his breath, and rolls over, trying to go back to sleep. Unfortunately for him, Liam throws some cold water on him, and he wakes up, still suffering from a splitting headache.

He sits up and starts to talk. “Dude, what the fuck do I have to be up so early for?” he asks, rather annoyed from a lack of sleep.

“You and me, we need to talk.” Liam replies, and Billy can tell he's angry. “Get up and get dressed, we're gonna go for a walk.”

Billy gets up obediently, or at least, trying not to piss Liam off anymore. Even in the state of his first hangover, he knows that he's in trouble.

They walk down the block to a nearby coffee shop, and Liam buys two coffees as they sit down in a booth.

“So what's going on?” Billy asks.

“Those douches trashed our bus.” Liam replies angrily. It's the total opposite of what Billy was expecting, but he relaxes slightly as Liam continues. “Apparently they got word that we were in town or something, and they slashed the tires, tore the inside of it apart, and fucked with the engines and everything. We were lucky though, I guess. Bishop, who is a genius, from what I've heard at least, decided to move all of the equipment up to his hotel room by himself. ”

“So we have no way to transport our stuff at all now.” Billy says, as a sort of a summary.

“Yeah, basically.”

“Well, I have an idea at least. What if we were to take over The Rabies' gig?” Billy suggests.

“We're already going to do that, Billy. Where have you been?”

“No. I don't mean that we should outdo them, I think we should literally steal their stage. Like just move all of our stuff onto the stage early, before they can, and somehow prevent them from getting in. Let Nonetheless play the original gig, and we'll play theirs.” Billy says, with one crucial bit of information that Liam doesn't know.

“How does that work, Billy?”

“I forgot to mention – They have no equipment.”

“How do you know this?” Liam asks suspiciously.

Billy decides to fill Liam in on his little adventure yesterday, of course, mentioning nothing about Kate. He knows that Liam will get suspicious as soon as he mentions her name. They sit there conversing for an hour before they see four guys walk in. In an instant the two in the booth know who they are. The fucking Rabies.

Billy and Liam get up to leave, but not in time.

One of them walks over to the Billy and Liam. The Rabies stand in between themselves and the doors.

A leather jacket, and tight jeans that are torn, the punk approaches them. “I'm Tom,” he says with a smirk as he holds out his hand. He's obviously looking for a fight, and Billy decides in a split second, that he'll give him one.

“Nice to meet you,” Billy says, shaking his hand. On letting go, he throws his left fist into Tom's jaw. Billy quickly lands a punch in his gut, and then brings his knee up between the his legs.

Tom falls to the ground, trying to clutch his gut, groin, and his face at the same time. “Just don't fuck with us.” Billy says as one of the other three helps Tom up. The other two exchange glances, nod, and start towards Billy and Liam with their fists clenched.

Billy grabs his fresh coffee on the table, takes his first sip, and then splashes it in the face of one. While blinded, he quickly throws two punches at the guy's face. The other one grabs Billy's fist out of the air as he goes for his third punch.

With his other hand tightly clenched around Billy's forearm, he attempts to throw Billy to the ground. Billy, however, manages to place his foot near his attacker's leg, and brings him down with him.

They fall down, and Billy sinks his knee into the gut of the man on impact. He pushes the cringing man off of himself, and trips the last member of The Rabies, while Liam is attempting to fight him. Fighting, however, is not one of Liam's many skills.

Billy grabs the leg of the fourth member, and pulls him down to the ground, as he jumps to his own feet. Billy kicks him in the ribs, as the woman behind the counter yells at the two of them.

“You two! Get out of here before I call the cops! NOW!” She screams.

They walk out, and Liam starts to talk. “Where the hell did you learn to fight like that Billy?”

“I don't really know, I've always just been pretty quick thinking and resourceful.”

“Wow.” Liam says, nearly amazed.

“Duck!” Billy shouts as he does so himself.

Behind the pair is Tom, in the air with a knife. Unable to tell how long it actually is, Billy can still tell that it is too long. Liam ducks, but Tom manages to slice Liam's back as he lands on the ground.

He jumps on Billy, trying to stab him. Billy drives his knee up into his gut again, and grabs Tom's left wrist, attempting to hold it back. He manages to slam his left fist into Tom's nose, making it bleed.

He flinches, but still continues to drive the knife towards Billy.

Thinking quickly, Billy throws his left fist as hard as he can, into the underside of Tom's left arm. The force of the impact is enough to make Tom swing his arm involuntarily. It slices Billy's cheek, but allows him to kick Tom off of him. Tom falls to the ground, the knife now in Billy's right hand.

In all of the commotion, the Tom had managed to stab the knife through Billy's hand. Billy quickly gets up, and starts kicking Tom. He kicks him in the ribs until he hears a crack, and then he decides he better get to a hospital before he loses too much blood.

Liam takes out his cell phone, and manages to call 911, but by the time they arrive Billy fades out of reality.

Part 23

Billy awakes in his own bed. The familiarity of his old room at his house stuns him for a second. He wanders out into the hallway, which is exactly like the house. As he heads towards the kitchen, the familiar smell of his dad's Sunday morning pancakes cooking in the pan wafts towards him.

But wait. Billy does a double take and looks around. He looks down at his hands. There's a knife in his right hand.

He starts freaking out, and begins to scream. He hears his dad shout. “Billy! The pancakes are ready!” He says casually, as if he had forgotten everything that had happened.

Billy calms down, and walks into the dining room confused. Rick is sitting at the table with his dad and sister, eating pancakes, like a traditional Sunday at his house.

He sits down at the table, as his family eats, not at all offset by the knife through his own hand. Upon looking down again, his hand is completely normal and healed.

“What the fuck?” Billy says in amazement, his last memory of fighting an asshole with a knife.

No one else seems to hear it, and Billy's surroundings suddenly spin and warp. He finds himself standing in a hallway at school.

“What the fuck?”

***

The doctor stands in the hallway wearing a white coat, and bearing a sad smile. He addresses the few that are presently there, others had left for coffee and other things. “Your friend has lost a lot of blood, and has entered a state of comatose.”

“What can we do?” Liam asks on behalf of himself, as well Kate, Bishop, Roy, and Jake.

“We could attempt a blood transfusion, but I don't know if any of you would be able to donate blood to him.”

“Why wouldn't any of us be able to?”

“Well, his blood type is O+, which means that he can only accept O+ or O- blood.”

“Well, we can at least find out if any of us can, right?” Kate asks.

“If you'd like to follow me,” The doctor says as he leads them to a waiting room. “You can wait here, the nurse will be here soon to take a blood sample from each of you.”

“Well, I already know that I can't donate any blood to him.” Jake says, “I have AB blood, so I can't.”

“Well, the rest of you then.” The doctor replies as he leaves.

***

Billy walks down the hallway of his school as the bell rings, and all of the students are just getting out of class. Three minutes of students swarming the hallways, his friends talk to him, even Alan.

He heads to his locker and as he opens it, his vision blurs and fades in and out, and he is now opening the door to Rita's room, rather than his locker.

A sudden sting of guilt hits him as he sees Rita lying outstretched and unclothed on her bed, waiting for him. She beckons him over with an angelic voice which commands him to do so. After ten minutes of sweet, imagined sex, he's suddenly on top of Kate.

He rolls off of her, and sits up. “Why did you stop?” is Kate's only response to this.

“Fucking dreams.” he mutters under his breath.

***

Bishop sits next to Billy's bed, as he sees his blood pump out of him. The very same thing that sustains his own life is being used to save another.

They all wait a few more hours, and Billy regains consciousness. He wakes up to an unfamiliar doctor standing over him in a bleach white hospital room. The doctor, with a coat as white as the walls, begins to talk. “You're free to go.” He says shortly after unhooking him from the machines.

His right is bandaged thoroughly and professionally. He looks at the clock as he steps out into the hall. “Fuck.” he mutters under his breath as he reads the clock to be eight at night.

He steps out into the hallway to find everyone sitting on benches in the hallway, waiting. They look up and see him, and smiles come to their faces.

“Come on, We got a show to play in an hour.” He says, with a sort of unexpected optimism. “Well, two actually. Considering that none of The Rabies are in any condition to play.”

“Shouldn't you take it easy with your hand?” Jake asks, on behalf of all of them.

“I'll be fine. It's just a flesh wound.” He says as everyone starts laughing.

***

“The Rabies can't play tonight.” Billy says, talking to the owner of the bar. “We can step in, for the same price.”

“People are expecting a band, so it looks like I don't have much of any choice. You guys are hired.” The manager says.

The members of DOA step onto the stage twenty minutes later, after setting everything up. They start off with 'Saints of Los Angeles', pounding into it right away. The crowd is extremely excited from the first second of the set. They burst right into Dead On Arrival from it, keeping their audience entertained.

The sweat drips off of their faces, Billy looks like he's in immense pain, while at the same time, having the time of his life. Roy's fingers are red with soreness, but he presses on, improvising solo licks. Liam is singing into the microphone, screaming at times, and running around the stage crazily, pumping the crowd up. Dan is keeping some insanely complex rhythms going, and Alan is improvising bass lines off of the top of his head.

Dead On Arrival doesn't actually end. The members of DOA just improvise their way out of it into a jam session, and the audience is going crazy.

They fade into a sped up cover of 'Uneasy Hearts Weigh The Most', with lots of improvised parts throughout the entire song that they stretch to six minutes. They abruptly stop, and then throw themselves back into 'Innocence', giving their performance of a lifetime. They play 'Fly Away' and 'Steal The Show' stretching out their set to an hour.

“Thank you all, we're going to take a break now, and we'll be back up here to finish the night off later.” Liam says into the microphone, and then heads backstage and chugs down some water.

The rest of DOA take a few minutes to sit down and drink water in silence.

Ten minutes later, and they climb back onto the stage, with the audience cheering for them. The owner, behind the bar, is smiling to himself as he tops off another beer and slides it down the smooth surface.

DOA starts to play furiously, like the first half of their set, and the atmosphere soon becomes as intense as before.